Obama's trip to Iraq
THE Editor of Newsweek International has categorically spelt out "What Obama Should Say on Iraq." This is necessary as Zakaria prophesies that 'were he elected, the war would be his biggest and most immediate problem…..he….will need to implement a serious policy on Iraq…..that is…. informed by the conditions on the ground to-day.'
Most immediately, when is the right time for the American troops to return? Not in 2006 amid all time high violence, and not when it is all so well. The way out is "Catch 22," in Arabic, if possible!
Catch 22 is a general critique of bureaucratic operation and reasoning, meaning "a no-win situation" or "a double bind" of any type. The book, "Catch-22"1961 by Joseph Heller, based on his own experiences as a bombardier during World War II and his reading of The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek. In 1970 it was adapted into a feature film of the same name.
Catch 22 is a military rule, the self-contradictory circular logic that, for example, prevents anyone from avoiding combat missions. The title came to be Catch-22, which, like 11, has a duplicated digit, with the 2 also referring to a number of déjà vu-like events common in the novel.
To embolden the directive and rationale on Iraq it is necessary to take a close look at the lessons contained within the account on 'the staggering incompetence and corruption….of a mission … Iraq reconstruction … that remains unaccomplished.' In "Blood Money", Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq, investigative reporter of the Los Angeles Times discloses 'how the US administration failed to keep its promises and allowed a nation to tumble into chaos.' This book is 'about the fate of Iraq, and…America's place in the world.' And it is this reality that closely concerns Obama and what he should say on Iraq.
T. Christian Miller makes stunning revelation on 59 key events in Iraq war beginning 9/11/01 to 5/20/06, based on official records, his four trips in more than two years of travel through Iraq, interview with nearly 170 persons, some on multiple occasions, lists the names of those who are guilty of immoral or illegal behaviour, with due respect to the whistle-blowers. The book in three parts, with a map with detail on Iraq reconstruction projects as of December 2005.
Destruction is an offence and U.S. was guilty of committing that offence - destruction of Iraq in 2003. To come off that guilt, the U.S. administration hurriedly announced its reconstruction mission to Iraq. Pentagon to oversee the outlay handpicked an inadequate team of men lacking in Middle-east know-how. Also missing were the plan of action, manpower and money. There was the ever present mirage of weapon of mass destruction.
False hope and promises came in the shape of U.S. administration's declaration that tax-payers would not be burdened with reconstruction. In 2006 re-building took over reconstruction and U.S. committed $30 billion towards this end.
Supreme hopelessness began to surface as unattainable lofty goals of restoration replaced re-building. Economic spark, peace and trust have not returned among the people.
The guilt of destruction, through reconstruction, rebuilding, and restoration, remains.
The singular signal of failure was the limitless violence. American soldiers died fighting Iraqi jobless men. Guerrilla war and sectarian conflict killed thousands of more men. Contractors and aid-workers working on projects and civil servants were killed. Ordinary Iraqis' hearts were filled with hatred. Their bewilderment found expression in the hyperbole statement, 'How could a country that put a man on the moon not manage to make the toilet flush in downtown Baghdad?'
Miller makes an attempt to answer that question in a simplistic way, wondering, 'how it was possible that the most economically and militarily powerful nation on earth could fail at so vital a task as rebuilding a nation.'
It is a chronicle on the money trail between Iraq and Washington, the spendthrift method of management, the role of spurious entrepreneurs, opportunistic politicians and greedy contractors, pitfall of contracting securities to corrupt private companies. The narrative is not anti-war, it is anti-greed. It is also 'a warning.' that the billions and billions of dollars of American investment in Iraq is at risk. A RAND Corporation study showed that implementation in nation building requires minimum of five years, and staying longer does not guarantee success, and leaving soon may spell failure.
During the winter of 2006-07 the $30 billion, a much bigger commitment than the Marshall Plan, 'There is no price tag on chaos - or salvation', Allen W. Dulles, was all nearly spent without delivering the most urgent needs - lights in the cities, jobs for the people, and the supreme need, the hope of the nation. 'Iraq had become a will-o'-wisp' Restoration now moved to failure in nation building.
Report on the direct input from the people and months of study on Iraq debacle were ignored. The 'New Way Forward' was announced to 'salvage Iraq from barbarity.'
This was a 'mea culpa' situation and to renewed effort for redress, 'to send tens of thousands of additional troops… to diminish violence… and additional billion for reconstruction …' for small projects like schoolrooms or paved ways. 'It was reconstruction with a small r.'
The first and second secret contracts worth $7 billion were made to Halliburton subsidiary called KRB to put out oil fire, and $680 million to Bechtel Corporation to construct every bridge, road, power plant, and school for the federal government.
Serving as the military's quartermaster, the single largest contractor had earned $14 billion. The company had flouted long lists of audits for wasting millions and millions of dollars. Pentagon decided to lump the firm and Halliburton decided to make public offer of the firm in 2006
The reconstruction program lacked accountability and consistent effort was being made to mount similar set-up as the Truman Commission to expose war profiteering and contracting reform legislation, necessary as… 'This is a foggy area where billions and billions of tax payer dollars are being spent, and we have no sense of how or what they are spending or doing,' said the woman representative from Illinois.
Considered most important by Pentagon was the training of Iraqi forces to take over security duties from U.S. troops. Contract of $79 million was made with a private security company USIS-Virginia. The training officer appointed 'was seeking in the heroic acts of others, what he demanded of himself. 'Honor like love, comes in both true and false forms. For the warrior, I will also show that the false forms are particularly bewitching,'
In May 2005 the whistle blower was found dead. Was he murdered by a contractor or did he commit suicide was a mystery, for he was forced to serve where 'value, honor, country' - the American value was no longer upheld. Many of the contractors were ex-military men and women who upheld the same values; however, their collective corporate presence turned the war into a profit enterprise, a greedy business. This happened following an anonymous four-page letter by a former USIS employee.
In addition, the wreckage of the U.S. administration's Iraq policy is brilliantly analyzed by Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post senior Pentagon correspondent Thomas E. Ricks' "Fiasco"
'The American military is a tightly sealed community… a great many senior officers view the Iraq war with incredulity and dismay…. many officers have shared their anger and in Fiasco, Ricks combines these astonishing on-the-record military accounts with his own extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to create a spellbinding account of an epic disaster.'
'….the military publicly acknowledge….. the guerrilla insurgency that exploded several months after Saddam's fall was not foreordained. In fact, to a shocking degree, it was created by the folly of the war's architects….. the officers who did raise their voices against the miscalculations, shortsightedness, and general failure of the war effort were generally crushed, their careers often ended. A willful blindness gripped political and military leaders, and dissent was not tolerated.'
'….heroes in Fiasco--inspiring leaders from the highest levels of the Army and Marine hierarchies to the men and women whose skill and bravery led to battlefield success in towns from Fallujah to Tal 'Afar--but again and again, strategic incoherence rendered tactical success meaningless. There was never any question that the U.S. military would topple Saddam Hussein, but as Fiasco shows there was also never any real thought about what would come next. This blindness has ensured the Iraq war a place in history as nothing less than a fiasco.
Iraq suffered double tragedy - the war and failure of reconstruction, and rebuilding a nation.
The purpose of Obama's Trip to Iraq is to refine policy and not remove U.S. troops quickly. Already the war policy has become a subject of debate on the candidate's altering from the core policy.
Amid discussion on nationwide job losses Obama said '…that this war was ill conceived, that it was a strategic blunder and that it needs to come to an end….. I will be deliberate and careful how we get out.'
Obama promised that on his first day in office he would summon the Joint Chief of Staff and give them a new mission and that is 'to end this war, responsibly, and deliberately but decisively.' He referred to how many troops may remain or need to remain in Iraq for purposes of training the local army and police, and not his 16-month timeline but what troop presence might be needed 'to be sure al-Qaeda doesn't re-establish a foothold there.'
He said, ' I will bring our troops out at a pace of one two brigade a month which would mean the United States would be totally out of Iraq in 16 months. That is what I intend to do as president of the United States.'
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments