'Maximum force.' How Iraq's new PM says he will end the chaos
The newly elected Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, has vowed to use "maximum force" to eradicate violence. It's a logic that the neo-cons would adore.
The response was a wave of bombings that left 19 people dead in Baghdad alone. The eradication of Iraqi violence is a big promise from a newly formed government that is not united enough to have even decided on key interior and defence posts. Calling itself the "new national unity" government, does not hide how far from unified the people of Iraq are.
Rising to find a cliche suitable to fit the occasion, President Bush said the day represented a:
"new day for the millions of Iraqis who want to live in freedom".There was the inevitable talk of this being the start of a US and UK pullout. Don't believe a word of it.
He promised that "the United States will continue to assist the Iraqis in the formation of a free country, because I fully understand that a free Iraq will be an important ally in the war on terror, will serve as a devastating defeat for the terrorists and al-Qaida, and will serve as an example for others in the region who desire to be free".
Iraq, as yesterday's events in Baghdad show, is still nearer to disintegration than unification.
The rise of sectarianism and the emergence of new militia forces only serve to emphasise how far from ready the new Iraqi army are from where the occupation forces hoped them to be by now.
I genuinely wish the new Iraqi government well, but the task facing them is Herculean.
The pat words of Bush merely emphasise how far removed he is from the reality that exists on Iraq's ground zero.
This is not a time for empty rhetoric, it's a time for what Churchill called, "Jaw-Jaw, not War, War". It's time to start a dialogue with the militias and to find out what can be done to bring the madness to an end.
The tired right wing logic of "never negotiating with terrorists" has no place here. Only dialogue can end the violence. The new Iraqi government's pledge to meet violence with "maximum force" does not portend well.
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