US envoy bows out with warning to Iraqis: 'Our patience is wearing thin'
I can't even imagine how galling it must be to be an Iraqi and have the people who invaded your country with too few troops to establish order tell you that their patience is running out regarding the violence that is wreaking havoc in your once orderly communities.
And yet, that was precisely the message that Zalmay Khalilzad gave as he stood down as US ambassador to the Green Zone.
I think the patience of the Iraqi people has probably run out long before that of their American counterparts, who live in cities where police control the streets and there are no bombs going off, however the poorer Iraqis have no choice in the matter. Though I'm sure there is some comfort somewhere to the Iraqis that their American counterparts are getting tired of watching them being blown up as they shop and go about their daily lives.At a final news conference in Baghdad, the Afghan-born diplomat warned of the growing pressure in the US to commit to a timetable for a withdrawal of troops.
"I know that we are an impatient people, and I constantly signal to the Iraqi leaders that our patience, or the patience of the American people, is running out," said Mr Khalilzad, who has been nominated by President Bush to succeed John Bolton as America's envoy to the UN.
Though I can't help feeling that such a sentiment might be better expressed by an incoming American Ambassador, carrying the implication that he has arrived to do something about it, rather than an outgoing one, who appears to be saying "Clean up our shit or we are out of here."
Khalilzad then listed what he thought was wrong with things in Iraq as they currently stand and there was much he said on which it is easy to agree. There needs to reconciliation between Sunni and Shia groups, there should be a fairer distribution of Iraq's oil between the ethnic groups, etc,. etc,.
Then he dropped this:
The myth that al-Qaeda are behind the violence in Iraq has surely been dropped by now? I mean seriously, Khalilzad has the nerve to talk of running out of patience and then plays the most worn out record in the Iraqi hit parade. When are the US going to accept that a civil war has broke out and that it broke out, not because of Al-Qaeda interference, it broke out because Donald Rumsfeld sent too few troops and the occupation army were unable to establish order in Iraq's streets?American and Iraqi officials were also trying to convince so-called "reconcilable insurgents" to unite against al-Qaida in Iraq and other Islamist militant groups.
"We have had discussions with those groups," Mr Khalilzad said. "They are continuing to take place and I think one of the challenges is how to separate more and more groups away from al-Qaida."
If Americans are going to lecture Iraqi's on their patience or lack thereof, can't we at least have a conversation that proceeds from a point of honesty? Does everything have to fit into this preordained American myth that they are fighting al-Qaeda on the streets of Iraq so that they don't have to fight them in America's heartland? I think the world's patience has run out with that particular lie.
It's true. He wasn't the worst American Ambassador to the Green Zone by a long chalk. But it is noticeable that, as he leaves, he accepts all the praise for anything positive that has happened during his tenure, and blames the Iraqis for anything negative.During his 21-month stint in Baghdad, Mr Khalilzad's attempts to reach out to Iraq's once all-powerful Sunni minority won praise. Yet his tenure coincided with a catastrophic rise in violence that brought the country to the brink of all-out civil war. Meanwhile, Iraq's post-Saddam political elite struggled to extend their influence beyond Baghdad's Green Zone.
Industry minister Fawzi Hariri said: "We can't say Iraq is better after his term, but believe me it could have been a lot, lot worse." Mr Khalilzad listed as his accomplishments the drafting of a constitution, the participation of all Iraqis in a second round of elections and the tortuous formation of a national unity government led by the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.
It's as if the government of Maliki is more powerful than that of the United States, who also failed to restore order to Iraq's streets. When the Americans failed in this regard, Rumsfeld declared, "Freedoms messy" and invited us to all enjoy the looting and general lack of law and order as a welcome respite from Saddam's savage totalitarian control.
When the Iraqi's fail to restore order they are treated as if they are being truculent. It's as if the Americans are saying, "Look, we've all had great fun but now is the time to stop!"
The implication is that the Iraqi's are choosing not to restore order and that the US is losing patience with this.
However, it was not the Iraqis who wanted this war. The Republicans wanted this war, they actually went out of their way to cherrypick evidence to support it and they then attacked the patriotism of anyone who tried to prevent them having it.
They should have heeded the wisdom of that great British politician that they flatter themselves that they emulate:
Never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter.The Republicans, having started a war against the advice of wiser souls than themselves, are now attempting to blame the Iraqis for being unable to put the lid back on a dangerous box that the Republicans prized open.
But unpredictability is the very nature of war, they are notoriously easy to start and difficult to end, which is why most of us didn't want this to begin with.
If Khalilzad wanted to say anything meaningful to the people of Iraq, if he truly wanted to express an emotion that the world could have rallied around, he would have surveyed the carnage that his Republican colleagues have inflicted on the people of that battered nation, said, "Sorry" and slipped away.
Click title for full article.
No comments:
Post a Comment