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Some curious news from Iraq
By AcademicElephant Posted in War — Comments (10) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
At first read, the news in this Associated Press round-up from Iraq might seem like more same-old same-old that provides yet more fodder for the "Iraq has Failed" theme. A mosque bombed. Civilian casualties. A SNAFU involving a son of an Iraqi politician who either was or was not involved in smuggling--what?--but who cares, hundreds took to the streets to protest. Ugh. This is just another bad-news buffet of violence and anti-Americanism (which is no doubt the impression the AP intended). Maybe John Murtha (D-PA) is right. Maybe Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is right. Maybe we should get the heck out of Dodge.
But then again, maybe we shouldn't.
Are you too jaded to read on?
Take another look at that article. Things may not be quite so straightforward. The mosque that was bombed was headed by an imam who "had spoken out against militants fighting the U.S.-backed government, including the group al-Qaida in Iraq." This bombing was not an example of "sectarian strife," which is the popular catch phrase for Sunni on Shi'ite (or vice versa) violence. Such incidents are of course popular in the press as evidence of the civil war everyone knows is raging in Iraq. But this was no such thing. This was Sunni on Sunni violence, and so is evidence of the terrorists trying to do what they do best; terrorize innocent citizens into doing their bidding. Moderate Sunnis are speaking out against this behavior, and more militant Sunnis are slaughtering them. That is something else entirely--a state of affairs that might bring Iraq together rather than drive it apart. The 35 who died at the hands of the cowards who constructed and detonated this truck bomb are not casualties in an Iraqi civil war; they are martyrs in the war on terror. Are the Iraqis so inured to violence at this point that they don't care who's doing the killing and who's doing the dying? Perhaps, but I don't think so. I think they care very much. And I'm not sure they're going to like this.
And then there's that protest. That word deserves repeating. A protest. Sure, there were protests under Saddam--staged protests against the United States (AKA The Great Satan). Was this one just another such anti-American vent? It was not. This was a spontaneous protest and it was peaceful. Citizens organized themselves, made their signs, and marched in the streets to protest the actions of the greatest, most powerful nation on earth. And that nation did not molest them. It allowed them to express their opinions and go home to their families. I admit I don't particularly like their opinions, but then again there are plenty of opinions right here at home that aren't my cup of tea. I was reminded of something Vice President Cheney said in Australia this week, where he was greeted by free people peacefully protesting:
You get some waves and then you get some other waves. (Laughter.) And that goes with living in a democracy. And our best friends and allies are democracies and people have and are encouraged to express their opinions. And that's as it should be.
The VP has a point. It is as it should be--in a democracy.
Don't get me wrong; I would not file either of these events as "good news from Iraq." The 35 dead and many wounded in the attack on Habbaniyah are tragic losses both for their own families and for a country that needs Sunnis willing to break with the terrorists and speak out against them. Episodes such as the detention of Amar al-Hakim are unfortunate in terms of the battle for hearts and minds that continues to wage in Iraq. It certainly sounds to me as if our troops were justified in detaining him, but of course this "routine traffic stop" has been transformed into a cause celebre of abuse by the Americans. And so both are unfortunate. But at the same time, they are not unmitigated disasters, and both suggest that whatever is going on in Iraq, it is different than it was this time last year. Perhaps the lesson from this article is that this is not the moment for us to cut and run. It is the time for us to stay and help.
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I know I am being picky, but the link you provided there reminds me of one of those questions on a logic test.
What word does not belong in this series?
Rhetoric - - Reality - - NY times
___________________________________________________________
Thou art the Great Cat, the avenger of the Gods, and the judge of words...-Inscription on the Royal Tombs at Thebes
...elements of terrorist groups and power struggles within Shi'a and Sunni communities.
"Promoting democracy requires attention to specific circumstances and to the limitations of U.S. leverage. Both because of what the United States is, and because of what is possible, we cannot engage either in promoting democracy or in nation-building as
who's come into the arena wants "cred" for staging their own event, whether it's an IED, a marketplace bomb or whatever else they do. It's easy to imagine a conversation among the insurgents that would include something like, "you heard about the one at North Haifa Street? That was me. No, not that one, further up the street, by the bakery..."
I've accepted media bias and its stubborn intransigence as facts of life, but I still wonder why more people outside of Iraq don't realize that every insurgent is fighting for one vision or another of minority rule and/or sectarian supremacy. These are clearly not "freedom fighters."
Within Iraq, I believe that probably 85% of the people want to be safe, free and left to tend to their own business without intimidation.
Mike Gamecock DeVine @ The Charlotte Observer
"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
That is my single biggest issue with the whole thing, that we don't let anybody down again and we show that Arabs deserve freedom, too. The opposition has still never admitted, let alone explain, why their motto seems to be, "freedom for me, but not for thee!"
to my second column for The Charlotte Observer
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/opinion/16685624.htm
Mike Gamecock DeVine @ The Charlotte Observer
"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
Thank you for that.
Great way to put it -- wish I'd thought of that phrase!!!
BTW, I've always thought that when the people of Iraq get sick and tired of sectarian violence, it will stop.
I have to admit Frau B that I cribbed it from the Sally Field movie "Soap Dish." Seemed an appropriate point of reference for the AP.
One point, though--I think that it's important to recognize that this attack wasn't sectarian in that it didn't pit shi'ite agains sunni--it was sunni on sunni and so not part of the civil war as it's being peddled by the press. It's an example of AQI waging war on anyone, including their sunni fellows, who supports a free and democratic Iraq.
"I'm kind of old-fashioned. I like to engage my brain before my mouth." Donald Rumsfeld
From the Iraqis, journalists, and American soldiers who I have had a chance to talk to, it seems that there is really no way of fitting the violence that is going on there into a single theme. Most of it does seem to be Sunni-Shi'a sectarian violence, as it is a well-known fact that most neighborhoods in Baghdad simply aren't safe for a member of a minority sect to travel to or through. However, there are also certainly elements of
I wouldn't take this article as a sign that things are going well with the Baghdad "clean-up." When Bush said that that operation was being led by Iraqis, apparently it was another example of the rhetoric not matching the reality.
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"Promoting democracy requires attention to specific circumstances and to the limitations of U.S. leverage. Both because of what the United States is, and because of what is possible, we cannot engage either in promoting democracy or in nation-building as an exercise of will."
-Paul Wolfowitz, 2000