What happens when the troops go home
Thursday, 28 September 2006 | 358 readers so far
Solving problems in Iraq is a long-term proposition that will continue to be challenging in years and decades to come. America faces some tough choices. Some questions that will be painful to answer no matter what the answer is. What happens if we leave too early? We already know that:
The Shiite south — including Karbala, Najaf and Maysan provinces, which coalition forces made the first test cases for withdrawal — is now a virtual Militiastan, ruled by armed gangs and warlords playing the part of politicians. In Hilla, the Iraqi commander of an effective (and even rarer, non-sectarian) police unit that works closely with U.S. Special Forces told me this summer that local officials, including his governor, regularly call him to their offices to pressure him to incorporate more militia members into his ranks, even threatening him with dismissal. He has survived at least a half-dozen assassination attempts.
In Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, where British forces have dramatically scaled back their patrols (as some withdrawal proponents would like to see U.S. troops do in other cities), the murder rate tripled this year and at least four Shiite militias are waging a bloody turf war. When British troops withdrew from the city of Amarah, militia loyalists ransacked their base and celebrated what they called a victory over “the occupier.”
Right now, Iraq is the wild west of the Middle East. Rule of law is practically non-existent in biggest population centers for many reasons. American troops can provide security very well, but there are not enough of them to do so everywhere all the time. Not even close. Does America want a draft? I don’t see that happening.
The Iraqi Army doesn’t work the same way as the U.S. military. The cultures are too different. Iraqi soldiers are much more casual and much less disciplined than we are. There are good Iraqi units out there, but they seem to be the exception rather than the rule. Militias provide a lot of the security for various neighborhoods in Baghdad, but they are incompatible with rule of law as envisioned by the planners and administrators who are trying to build a working democracy in the war-torn nation. This is mostly because the militias are motivated by religion and sect. Iraq lacks the nationalist drive and vision that keeps America glued together.
What’s needed? Strong secular leaders on the national and local level. When the United States was being formed, there was a great amount of debate between federalists and anti-federalists. The federalists won. In Iraq, a similar debate is taking place. In the next year, Iraqis will decide whether they want to split the country into three semi-autonomous regions - one for Shia, one for Kurds and one for Sunnis.
I don’t think Iraq is in freefall. Hope exists, and there are many brave Iraqis working to make things better. Ultimately it will be up to them to mold the direction Iraq will take. What will rise from the ashes of Saddam? That remains to be seen.
I’ve been here a year, and perhaps contributed a tiny drop in a giant bucket. I hope that in coming years, I will see more honesty from American leaders when it comes to our role in Iraq. We have a responsibility to stay and work with the fledgling Iraqi government until they ask us to leave. I would like to hear less glossing over of the horrible violence and more realistic statements explaining that Iraq’s current situation will take at least a generation to stabilize. The American people have a responsibility to support the legitimately elected government as long as is necessary to bring peace and stability to average Iraqis.
If we shy away from the truth, as ugly as it sometimes is, I believe we will be spitting in our own eye. We legally punish a parent who abandons a child. Iraq is our child now. We birthed her. Running away when things get tough isn’t the answer. If we run away I will consider it abandonment.
1 September 29th, 2006 at 12:37 am
datarat says:
I agree with you about facing the truth Trevor, but the fact is that most people can’t see much beyond the next headline.
I have a sister who’s about as staunchly conservative and Republican as you can get short of some of the scarier fundamentalists, and she has told me on more than one occasion that she’s not voting for another Republican until all the troops are brought home. “It’s horrible what’s happening over there. Our boys don’t need to be in that kind of danger.”
And she supported the action in Viet Nam.
So something has given her the opinion that all is lost and why the hell do we care about another country anyway? So perhaps she doesn’t realize that the majority of Iraqis are just like us, and just want to do their jobs and raise their kids. Maybe the death toll has convinced her that if it’s not easy it’s not worth it.
Maybe the Administration hasn’t explained it well enough, or it’s message hasn’t been accurately relayed to the public. Both are options.
So the politicians play the game, and some try to convince us it’s not so bad and others describe the apocalypse. In the mean time the decisions get deferred while people of conscience make the best decisions they can based on the information they have.
2 September 29th, 2006 at 8:39 pm
GunnNutt says:
Very few people are trained to think “big picture” and most of us simply lack the patience for it. Your “tiny drop” in the bucket has made more of a splash than you probably realize because your part-time blogging job is just as important as your paying gig for Uncle Sam. You know how to make the arcane accessible and the future seem less scary.
Thank you again and again for volunteering a second time, this time with a lot more to lose. You really are a hero, Trevor.
Semper Gratus!
3 September 29th, 2006 at 8:55 pm
Jim says:
I think the administration tries to get the word out. Problem is, anyone who bothers to compare actual speeches by administration officials to reporting by the MSM can see that the content of those speeches is routinely mis-construed.
In addition, the Democrats, by and large, have failed in their responsibility to be the Loyal Opposition in regards to the war on terror. When they characterize simple errors in judgement as criminal acts and insist on every occasion that “Bush Lied” about — oh — pretty much everything, then how is the military and the administration likely to respond? Probably by trying to put a good face on things and even by hiding problems.
No war has ever proceeded without errors in judgement and execution. The Dems could have played an important role in pointing out those errors and providing guidance and cooperation when political and military adjustments had to be made. Instead, they opted out.
“Not in my name’ is their mantra. Their conduct in many cases borders on treason. It’s no wonder things are so confused. Considering all the support the MSM and the far Left give the terrorists, it’s a wonder things are going as well as they are. The courage and dedication of our military is the key to any success we have had or will ever have in the region.
Personally, I’ll be voting Republican (or for Dems/Independents like Lieberman) until we have a two-party system again. That will either be a reformed Democratic party or a new one altogether. Not to pursue the War on Terror with every weapon at our disposal is to sell our children’s future for a mirage of peace.
jim
4 September 3rd, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Nimrod says:
‘Everything must not be told to everybody. Truth is power, and when held by untrue hands it may become a plague’
“The earth would not be inherited by the meek, but by the mighty”
PROPOSAL FOR RE ESTABLISHING THE STATE OF NIMROD
THE EUROPEAN AGENCY FOR NIMROD
The Nimrodian culture and history is being diminished by Arabs and Kurds, The European Agency for Nimrod seeks to re-establish the state of Nimrod in the land between two rivers. We seek to bring immigrants from all over the world to preserve our history from barbarians who are destroyers of civilization. The land we seek is the one that is located between the two rivers; please revert to figure 1 below.
The only way for the United States to secure its interests is to implement this plan, because Arabs are not trustworthy and it is evident from current events that they only seek to use the U.S and its people especially the American taxpayer to pay hard earned money so that a savage terror sponsoring nation like Iran would grow stronger, especially now when the Iranian regime has a strong grip in present day Iraq, a mere expansion of its terrorist empire. Since the Babylonian era, the Persians have sought to destroy Nimrod. Babylon, the capital of Nimrod will rise again and will establish alliances in the new Middle East, especially with Israel and Turkey, for reasons pertaining to similar cultural backgrounds, as we seek to bring settlers from Europe and help the world get rid of Islamic Terrorism.
The land we seek is reasonable and we don’t have any desire to expand beyond the borders established in the map above. We will be challenged as we will be surrounded by hostile states, but we will build a civilized modern state that will be able to defend itself from Arab and Islamic terrorism. It is such challenge that will help us grow and exist as a nation. We will start in 2008 to promote the idea through festivals and entertainment venues across the world.
THE ARAB WORLD
“A place of stagnation, resentment and violence”
Arab governments have long been harshly criticized from outside and within the Arab world.1 they are accused of being undemocratic, nepotistic, unaccountable, brutal, corrupt, inflexible and inefficient.
The region’s undemocratic systems of governance are blamed for its perceived economic decline, political instability and complicity with terrorism. This issue was highlighted by President Bush in November, 2003, when he told the National Endowment for Democracy that
“Ninety years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe – because in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty. As long as the Middle East remains a place where freedom does not flourish, it will remain a place of stagnation, resentment and violence ready for export. And with the spread of weapons that can bring catastrophic harm to our country and to our friends, it would be reckless to accept the status quo.” (Bush 2003)
Others argue conversely that Western democracy is inconsistent with the Arab and Islamic traditions of the region.
“The general failure of liberal democracy to take hold in Muslim societies is a continuing and repeated phenomenon for an entire century beginning in the late 1800s. This failure has its source at least in part in the inhospitable nature of Islamic culture and society to Western liberal concepts.” (Huntington 1998:114)
“Such central issues of Western political development as the conduct of elections and the definition and extension of the franchise, therefore, had no place in Islamic political evolution. Not surprisingly, in view of these differences, the history of Islamic states is one of almost unrelieved autocracy. The Muslim subject owed obedience to the legitimate Muslim ruler as a religious duty. That is to say, disobedience was a sin as well as a crime.” (Lewis 1993)
And even some Arab commentators have adopted this line
“In the light of on-going events, it appears that the Arab psychology has become addicted to the dictatorial model of life. Indeed, all the Arab peoples – all of them – have become completely addicted to dictatorship, oppression, and regimes that beat (the people) on their heads with their shoes and hit them below the belt. … I do not exaggerate by saying this because, within each of us, there is a little dictator who feels gratification when he is repressed by those stronger and more brutal than he and who, at the same time, does not refrain from acting this same way, in his milieu, towards those weaker and inferior in status.” (Rashid 2003)
Those on the Islamist right tend to regard liberal democracy as an anti-Islamic, Western intrusion, perhaps to be exploited and then abandoned.
WHAT IS THE NEXT STEP?
“We know the lessons of the past. We know the consequences of appeasement and indifference. There is no place for such leaders in this world. There is no place for such a regime in the family of nations,” said the founder of the European Agency for Nimrod.
According to many people, this “simplistic image” ignores the fact that Nimrod’s history remains threatened democracy in a hostile region. “We face an enemy willing to use all the means at its disposal, to kill without restraint and without distinction,” said the founder of the NIMRODIAN APARTHEID PARTY.
“To protect its integrity, the international community must uphold this basic moral distinction. Terror is terror - even when it’s called resistance. It cannot be justified and it cannot be equated with the actions of those seeking only to defend themselves against it
Nimrod will not rest until all its borders are defined and its people are safe and embraced by a loving nation.
The only resolution would have to be founded on the principles of a Road Map peace plan, adding that the Arabs and Kurds would have to abide by a four state solution.
The newly established states would have to concede their claim for the Right of Return, and agree to the four -state solution. The Arab and Kurdish Authorities must renounce terror. “Unfortunately, the current government in the pre-divided Iraq is a dominated today by a terrorist organization that teaches children to hate and seeks to transform the conflict from a resolvable political dispute into an endless religious confrontation,” he said, and concluded that ” It is a moment to demand that those Arab and Kurdish leaders that believe in peace determine the future on these terms, not on the terms of the terrorists.” The Republic of Nimrod that we seek to establish must comprise mainly of peaceful and civilized settlers and while today’s Iraq is a recipe for disaster and a realm of chaos and anarchy.
In order to safeguard our existence among hostile Arab states, we must work hard to endeavor to grow as a nation and develop defense treaties with Turkey and Israel so that we can survive and defeat Arab treachery and terrorism.
We will bring in immigrants from the Russian federation and Europe and Africa and we will use English as an official language, however we will not be part of the Arab nor Islamic world.
We will build high fences defining our border and will make military service compulsory for all citizens aged between 18+.