Remarkably, U.S. politicians act as if Americans have a greater duty to govern, defend, and sustain Iraq than Iraqis themselves. Only this explains their reaction to thousands of Iraqi troops fleeing Ramadi to escape hundreds of ISIS fighters last week. For, instead of damning these Iraqi cowards, U.S. politicians blamed U.S. commanders for not being there, on the ground, to stiffen their spine.
To be fair, the United States spent 12 years, lost 4,491 soldiers, and wasted $2 trillion trying to build a Jeffersonian democracy in the heart of the Middle East. I suspect a despairing wish to validate or vindicate this tragic record of futility is what motivates these politicians.
The problem is that they seem afflicted by the same delusion that compels a drunken gambler – who has already lost everything except the clothes on his back – to play one more hand, hoping against hope for a reversal of fortune.
Not to mention the warmongering neo-cons agitating for U.S. boots back on the ground. They seem oblivious to the fact that Iraqi Sunnis and Iranian Shiites fought an eight-year war during the 1980s, and have been baying to go at it again ever since … if only meddlesome Americans would get out of their way. I say, get out of their way, America!
In fact, ever since the days of shock and awe in 2003, I have been agitating for America to leave holy warriors in Iraq and across the Middle East to their own devices – as I did in such commentaries as “The Shotgun Convention of Sunnis, Shias, & Kurds to Frame an Iraqi Constitution,” August 22, 2005. Here, for example, is an excerpt from “Civil War in Iraq Is at Hand,” March 20, 2006.
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When the truth is plain to see, there’s nothing more irritating than some idiot trying to convince me otherwise. But the consequences for me in such cases have never been anything to lose sleep – let alone my life – over. Alas, the same cannot be said for the families of loved ones serving in Iraq. Because they must suffer far more than irritation when idiots – up and down the chain of command in the Bush Administration – try to convince them that reports of Iraq being a lost cause are not true…
Yesterday marked the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. And, if I were gullible enough to take President Bush and his salute-and-obey generals at their word, I would have expected to see Yankee Doodle-inspired parades in the streets of Baghdad – as grateful Iraqis fête U.S. military and civilian personnel with ‘rose petals and air kisses’ for their liberation. The truth, of course, is that neither U.S. personnel nor most Iraqis dare walk the streets of Baghdad for fear of being caught in the crossfire of civil-war factions battling for control of this and other cities all over Iraq.
But, imagine the absurdity, indeed the tragedy, of Ayad Allawi, the man the U.S. Congress hailed as the Abraham Lincoln of Iraq just sixteen months ago, now proclaiming that stabilizing Iraqi is a lost cause, yet having Oval-office generals like Bush and VP Cheney trying to convince him and the world otherwise.
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I agitated for this cause notwithstanding that leaving would violate the famous, even if apocryphal, Pottery Barn rule: You break it, you own it!
No doubt you recall the then secretary of state, Colin Powell, invoking this rule to give pause to America’s march of folly into Iraq. This fateful irony, of course, is that he ended up making the case for immediate recourse to war. Specifically, during his infamous UN address in March 2003, he presented what he claimed was proof Iraq possessed WMDs … only to have that proof prove bogus after the die was cast.
In any event, even though America broke Iraq, it could never own Iraq. More to the point, given all America has invested trying to put Iraq back together again, I hereby invoke this Humpty Dumpty rule: If you spend ten years trying to sow seeds of democracy and nothing blooms, you can stop trying, without loss of face or favor, especially if those you’re trying to democratize are continually shooting your people in the back, literally. But I digress….
The point is that, if President Bush had withdrawn all troops after declaring “Mission Accomplished” on May 1, 2003, he would have spared the United States ninety percent of the wasted years, blood, and treasure cited above.
In the “Mission Accomplished” speech Bush should have delivered, he could have said that he’s ordering the immediate withdrawal of all combat troops because, while they can liberate Iraqis from their dictator, U.S. troops cannot impose democracy upon them.
Meanwhile, Iraq is a country beset by general administrative incompetence, endemic corruption, and sectarian strife. It is mired in a culture of dependency so pathological that local leaders are still looking to Americans to not only clean up their messes, but fight their battles too.
In fact, Iraq’s surreal state of affairs has become so absurd that Iranians are now calling Americans cowards. Ironically, like U.S. politicians, they also blame U.S. commanders for standing by and watching as U.S.-trained and equipped Iraqi soldiers hightailed it and ran from ISIS fighters in Ramadi last week. This, after standing by and watching as “their” Iraqi soldiers did the same in Mosul last June.
Don’t get me started on the absurdity of U.S. commanders claiming to be “shocked, shocked” by the fecklessness of Iraqi soldiers. After all, these soldiers displayed similar cowardice in 2003, when they hightailed it and ran from the battlefield, thereby enabling invading U.S. troops to look like they were on a military parade to honor Saddam Hussein, instead of a military offensive to overthrow him.
Beyond name calling, though, there’s the more consequential spectacle of Iraqi leaders now looking to Iranian-trained Iraqi militias to fight existential battles against ISIS fighters – battles U.S.-trained Iraqi soldiers seem unable or unwilling to fight. Got that?
This is why, apropos of hope, I had a glimmer of it on Sunday, when U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter (center) finally called this spade a spade:
What apparently happened was that the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight … they vastly outnumbered the opposing forces, and yet the failed to fight…
We can give them the training, we can give the equipment, but we obviously can’t give them the will to fight…
We can participate in the defeat of ISIL, but we can’t make Iraq run as a decent place for people to live … only the Iraqis can do that.
(CNN, May 24, 2015)
Unfortunately, within hours of Carter’s rebuke, VP Joe Biden made it clear that, instead of signaling an American awakening, Carter was just going rogue:
Vice President Joe Biden is reassuring Iraq’s government of U.S. support in the fight against the Islamic State group, telephoning Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi with thanks for ‘the enormous sacrifice and bravery of Iraqi forces’ one day after Defense Secretary Ash Carter questioned the Iraqi military commitment.
(Washington Post, May 26, 2015)
Even though a billion times more tragic, this is every bit as foolhardy and indulgent as a school principal telephoning the mother of a failing student to reassure her that he’s doing well.
In explaining his policy towards Cuba, Obama ridiculed his critics by invoking the Einsteinian definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Therefore, he of all people should appreciate how insane it is for the United States to keep trying to “make Iraq run as a decent place for people to live.” After all, the United States has been trying to no avail to do just that for over twelve years now.
NOTE: Carter’s authoritative, albeit belated, rebuke pertains to Afghanistan as well, notwithstanding Biden’s apology.
Related commentaries:
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Shotgun convention…
Civil war in Iraq…