It isn’t very often that I agree with someone’s observations so much as I do Evan Kohlmann’s about the Iraqi insurgency and what we should be doing in this interview in Salon (hat tip: The Moderate Voice). Right from the naiveté in expecting to be able to establish a Western-style democracy in Iraq to the need to maintain our military presence in Iraq despite casualties, that it bolsters Al-Qaeda recruitment, that the U. S. military presence (i.e. “the Occupationâ€) is one of the reasons that there’s the level of killing in Iraq that there is, and that we’d rather be spending the money on something else. Here’s what Mr. Kohlmann says:
Do you think the U.S. should withdraw from Iraq?
I’m afraid not. If we withdraw from Iraq right now, there’s no doubt what will happen. First there’s going to be a war for control of Baghdad and then once Baghdad is ripped to the ground, the battle is going to spread across Iraq. It could potentially be like Rwanda. Right now, hundreds of people are being killed each month, which is awful and horrifying in itself. Imagine if that figure was 100 times bigger. Also, if we withdraw, a widespread war is going to be entirely our responsibility. It’s easy to say it’s Iraqis killing Iraqis. But nobody else is going to see it that way. Everyone is going to affix blame to us. We will ultimately cause a situation that forces us to reinvade Iraq and create even more casualties. It’s an awful Catch 22.
Check it out. The interview is well worth reading.
I’d also like to respond to this comment from the post at TMV here:
When I read about the various fihting groups so starkly enumetated and described, I feel I’m trapped in a nightmare from which I can’t wake up. This man’s message is that we can’t leave.But staying would tear our country apart.
It’s beginning to look like all we can do is choose the poison that will do us in.
Every single American casualty is a tragedy and my heart goes out to the friends and families of the brave and gallant Americans who’ve given their lives in Iraq. However, one of the characteristics of maturity is the ability to distinguish lesser evils from greater ones and in my view the greater evil is the enormous numbers of Iraqi casualties that no one really doubts will ensue if we leave Iraq before things there are a lot more stable than they are now and the other problems catalogued by Mr. Kohlmann, above.
I opposed the invasion of Iraq but I think we have no mature choice other than to remain there now and do whatever we can to pacify the situation. That this somehow makes me complicit in the original invasion is absurd. We must look at the situation as it is now; not as it was four years ago; not as we wish it were. It’s a sign of sanity that one is able to adapt to change.
What they should really do to stop the causes of violence is to break the atmosphere of occupation by outlining conditions of withdraw or a time line or in other sort of manner clearly indicating that they want to leave as soon as. While they keep acting like an occupier that is not even willing to say we want to leave, no matter it looks we are defeated (which is why U. S. senate thinks they should stay, otherwise it looks like Al-Qadeh has defeated them!), any Iraqi government would like a puppet assembled of traitors deserving to be killed which feeds the flames of the war.
U.S. should state that we are going to withdraw, no matter what. That clears the stain of betray from any Iraqi government in charge of bringing peace to the country.
Check out the diletantte “AJ Strata’s” Iraq commentary today at Strata-sphere.com. Here is the typical arrogant ignorant American “Imperial Hubris prototype at its instructive worst.
Strata links to a NY Times piece that describes the killing of a few
al Qaedas but the same piece depicts the roadside bombing of several
American soldiers to boot. Strata ignores the American casualties and
boasts about the al Qaeda killed. Then,as if to subconsciously exonerate
himself from noting one but not the other, says “contrary to liberal
propaganda there is not an endless supply of insurgents.”
Oh, AJ, but there IS an endless supply-and before any significant
Arab/Moslem bloc will allow the US to implant a pro-Israel puppet in Iraq,
as Bush originally planned, this supply will be reinforced and reinforced
until all the neocon bloggers combined represent not 25% of the
American public,as the perhaps do now,(pretending otherwise of course)
but no more than 5% of a war-wearied public.
America has already,as General Odom said, created widespread
destruction in the Middle East. To pretend it can redeem its
reputation by staying, is escapism.
Condit just appointed the Israel-firster Eliot Cohen as an assistant.
Cohen, who has called the Mearsheimer/Walt paper on the Zionist Lobby,
“anti-semitic.” The Arab/Moslem world knows who is pulling decisive
strings in American foreign policy. Just under the Zionists are the
oiligarchs, determined to make prime profits, using Israel as their
outreach partner.
This combine is leading America to suicidal defeat in an area which
hates its influence and will resist it every step of the way. The siteowner
should be calling for an entire revamping of the string-pullers and their
foreign policy. America will ultimately be forced out of the Middle East, and to develop its own energy self-sufficency while allowing Middle Easterners to choose their own leaders who will sell oil to us at market prices. On its way out it might push the Israelis off the West Bank
as a good will parting shot.