Now that the long-awaited, what I’ll call, “Report on Our Way Out of Iraq,” has been issued (December 6, 2006), we can marvel at how much and little that Report accomplished and provided this country.
Its biggest gift: unanimous, bi-partisan agreement/acceptance that Iraq is a mess and that American withdrawal should occur as quickly as practicable. It’s the practicable part that exposes the Report’s true weakness and lack of salutary answers or insights.
Of course, when you’re between a rock and a hard place, push as much as you like. All you’ll get are strained muscles.
This Report affirmed what I raised nearly two months ago as Contributing Editor of “The Forum” at the Understanding Government Foundation website. The State Department, much more than Defense, will be the “go to” agency in the near term as the Executive Branch takes diplomatic and economic steps to stabilize Iraq and the Region and reduce (but unfortunately probably not eliminate) the likelihood of massive blood-letting as U.S. troops leave the Iraqi theater.
Yes, the Study Group Report signals that the U.S. Government and population acknowledge that the Iraq War is over. All that’s left is the violence, suffering, insecurity, and uncertainty that has been, is, and will be the Middle Eastern geopolitical reality.
No matter what the Iraqi government does or doesn’t do, we are leaving. The Report, while proclaiming “grave and deteriorating” circumstances in Iraq, nevertheless implies that its recommendations, if adopted, will bring all stakeholders to the diplomatic table, and they will negotiate and act in good faith, which will undoubtedly be congruent with U.S. and international hopes and expectations.
That’s bunk. Pure unadulterated fantasy. Read the Report’s Executive Summary. The nasty word “IF” appears six (6) times. That’s a lot of if’s for a mere summary.
This Report merely provides unanimous political cover, offered by 10 highly-distinguished Americans, to get out of Dodge! This document says we’ll leave come Hades or high-water. Perhaps they expect that Iraqi and other Middle East leaders will take heed, quiver in fear, and display behavior that has heretofore been lacking for the past several generations.
After reading and digesting the recommended 79 recipes for success, I was shaking my head, saying “Alleluia” in one breath and “It won’t fly, Wilbur” in the next.
If pigs could fly, they’d have wings. If these recommendation were possible to implement, the Middle East situation would long ago have been stabilized through the many concerted international initiatives of the recent past, e.g., Camp David Accord, Oslo agreement, U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1 through infinity, etc.
It’s amazing also how many of the recommendations speak of “training” or related developmental efforts to build a sound Iraqi civil structure. Those suggestions about the Department of Justice or the FBI working with Iraqi officials to conduct investigations, establish courts, etc., border on the laughable. If (notice how many times the Report and I use this word) Iraqi society and leaders are unable or unwilling to understand and pursue “democracy,” as the Bush Doctrine entails however you wish to describe it, what makes anyone believe that these steps will yield fruit?
Don’t get me wrong. The recommended recipe is comprehensive and sensible in theory. It’s the reality on the ground and what’s in Iraqis’ hearts, which this Report was supposed to navigate, that concerns me most.
Thanks to this Group’s efforts, we now know the scope and complexity of the task before us.
We’re told in the Bible that if we have faith, even as small as a mustard seed, we can tell a mountain to move, and it shall move. Read the recommendations. They ask that many mountains be moved. This will require a lot of faith and work on the part of us – as in U.S. – and many other countries in the Middle East and elsewhere.
To appreciate the true nature of the challenge, we first need to become better students of Middle East history. One book, “A Peace to End All Peace” by David Fromkin, should be on our reading list. It provides a sober portrayal of how the aftermath of World War I shaped today’s Middle East. Yes, I wrote World War I. That was a few years ago, wasn’t it? Time moves differently in this Region than it does for 21st century Americans.
President Bush’s goal of democratization of Iraq and the wider Middle East is more likely than not the appropriate solution. However, either we were not sufficiently wise or patient to plant and nurture the roots, or Middle Easterners were unwilling or unable to tend the garden. History will judge whether either or both of these factors explain our failing in Iraq.
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Fred W. Apelquist, III, M.Ed.
Approximately 775 words.
© December, 2006