Too High
Sunday The New York Times offered an editorial entitled "The Price of Iraq". It was something I missed at the time, but after reading through it today, I thought I'd share it, in case you missed it as well.
Here is an excerpt:
Iraq now does have a constitutional government, elected by the Iraqis themselves. But that will make no difference at all unless that government can provide all its citizens with basic order and security.Right now armed gangs of thugs, many of them wearing government uniforms, are spreading terror throughout the country. Some were trained by American forces to work for the Interior Ministry, but actually do the bidding of Shiite political and religious leaders. They harass, kidnap and murder people who follow different religious practices or support competing politicians, often with the help of weapons and equipment provided by an American government that had very different objectives in mind. The Times reported last week that Sunni forces working for the Ministry of Defense who were supposed to be guarding Iraq's oil pipeline were instead freelancing as death squads, assassinating people who cooperated with the same government that paid the gunmen's salaries.
Of all of George Bush's many arguments for the invasion, the only one that has survived exposure to reality is that Iraqis deserve something better than a brutal dictatorship. But right now the country appears on the way to a civil war among the armed groups competing to impose order on their own terms. To avoid repeating a very bad history, the nation's security forces must be brought under control by people who have both the will and the capacity to truly unite the nation.
The fact that the current government avoided naming any officials to the posts that control the military and internal security forces when it announced its first cabinet was a clear sign of how difficult that task would be. And coming up with acceptable nominees is just the first and easiest step. The current military and civilian police forces must be purged of their brutal and lawless elements, and the numerous private militias must be made to stand down and disarm.
American forces can never be a substitute for Iraqi soldiers and police officers who take seriously their duty to protect all the people, regardless of religion or ethnicity. Mr. Bush's premise that American troops should simply stay on the ground until Iraq gets things right and defeats all insurgent forces and terrorist groups, however long it takes, is flat wrong. The United States presence is dangerous — to the soldiers themselves, to American standing in the world, and most tellingly to large numbers of innocent Iraqis.
Along the same lines, The Belgravia Dispatch looks at the downward spiral that is Iraq in numbers of deaths.
Yesterday I spent Memorial Day at a friend's house. One of the families attending the get together had come after visiting Arlington National Cemetary. They took their children to visit the grave of their brother, an uncle the children never knew, wanting them to understand that Memorial Day was more than just a day off school.
They talked about the different graves they had passed en route to the one they sought, and how many there were. They wondered aloud when they would run out of space in the cementary.
Another guest at the party was a journalist. He said he is working on a piece about contractors in Iraq. He said the number of American contractors killed was in the thousands as well and yet those deaths go largely unreported.
Combine that number with the number of men and women killed in the line of duty, the Iraqi civilians, and the number doubles over and over again. It's sickening and shows no sign of stopping.
Day by day, our soldiers are in jeopardy. The Iraqi people have a fragile government at best, a nightmare of a country at worst.
Meanwhile, the President has offered no plan, no exit strategy, no leadership. He's offered nothing but cowboy rhetoric he now appears to regret.
Our troops and the American people are owed more than regrets. We are owed more than empty words from a President and an Administration that ignored warnings, dismissed facts and sought to discredit anyone who questioned their reasons for entering Iraq.
Comments (9) «
« Hide Comments
Comments are now closed for this entry.
