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October 19, 2006
JINSA Report #613
And What do we Want to Have Done? Part II
Given America's security interest in the integrity of Iraq and the need
to keep Syrian and Iranian controlled money and terrorists out, the
American priority in Iraq should be to secure the borders. The US
should, in fact, consider putting all 141,000 American soldiers in
theater on the borders with their guns pointed out.
The US toppled Saddam knowing that Iraq was a financial and political
sponsor of terrorism and in violation of UN Resolutions regarding WMD
programs, and believing that Saddam was or would be in a position to
threaten American security if sanctions were lifted. In those things,
the US was correct. We also discovered 27 million Iraqis brutalized by
35 years of Stalin-like repression, which resulted in 400,000 bodies in
mass graves including horrible numbers of women and children. In
dealing with this situation, we made erroneous assumptions that now
haunt us and kill our soldiers.
We believe it was and remains true that most Iraqis were pleased to be
released from Saddam and desire nothing more than opportunities for
themselves and their children. Their bravery and their purple fingers
awed us.
But a certain smaller number of Iraqis were fed and nourished by the
regime and another certain smaller number felt entitled to revenge
against the Sunni minority and rule in its stead. These smaller groups
are the armed groups and they make economic and political reconstruction
impossible, particularly since there is no "normal" public outcry
against the violence. Regular people have spent decades keeping their
heads down.
Here is the issue with the militias. In April, Ayatollah Sistani said
after a meeting with then Prime Minister-designate al-Maliki that it had
"become necessary to have weapons only in the hands of government
forces," and that the government must "rebuild these forces on sound,
patriotic bases so that their allegiance shall be to the homeland alone,
not to any other political or other groups." In June, al-Maliki called
in The Washington Post for "a state monopoly on weapons by putting an
end to militias." But this is October, and al-Maliki told USA Today
that his government will not force militias to disarm "until later this
year, or early next year" and criticized the coalition for an over
reliance on force. In the meantime, more than 3,000 Iraqi police
officers have been dismissed on charges of corruption and dereliction of
duty, and two generals of the police Special Commandos unit were
dismissed for links to Shiite militias.
It was probably wrong of the US to expect the new government to
undertake security as if its power base was comprised of the voting
citizens. It is not. The government is clearly subject to the dictates
of the armed and murderous militias, and cannot or will not disarm them.
To acknowledge that is not to seek to abandon Iraq, but to ask why
American soldiers should continue patrolling and dying in Sadr City.
It is an already difficult mission for Americans soldiers to secure and
"rebuild" Iraq while parts of the population remain at war with their
government, their fellow citizens and with us. It is an impossible
mission if the Iraqi government isn't fully on our side.
To view this JINSA Report online click on the link below.
http://www.jinsa.org/JINSAReports/3562
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