What is Bush’s Real Goal
in Iraq?
By Paul Findley*
Our most urgent challenge in Iraq
is convincing the insurgents that we will pack
and leave once a directly-elected government is
installed. Distrust of US intentions is the root
cause of the bloody rebellion that seems to gain
strength each month. Is the Bush Administration
honest in stating that its objective is a stable,
democratic Iraq? Or is that just a cover for permanent
military bases that will enable the US government
to dominate Iraq far into the future?
Here are a few of the reasons why Iraqis distrust
US intentions:
* Headlines and newscasts are replete with forecasts
by administration officials that US troops will
be needed in Iraq for years.
* “Neocons” in the Defense Department
long ago urged an invasion of Iraq as a step toward
US control of the Middle East. Retired US General
Anthony Zinni, former chief of the US Central
Command, publicly stated recently that “everyone”
in Washington knows that oil and Israel are the
real reasons for the war.
* Beginning with the thunderous, devastating “shock
and awe” opening round, US military assaults
have left over 100,000 Iraqi civilians dead, with
other thousands wounded and/or homeless, and vast
areas, including the great historic city of Fallujah,
in ruins.
* No serious shakeup or reprimand in high places
followed the disclosure of US torture and humiliation
of detainees.
* Administration officials handpicked the interim
Iraqi government in its entirely. The prime minister,
Ayad Allawi, resided for a long period in the
United States, had close links with the CIA, and
earlier was a close colleague of Saddam Hussein,
once serving as the dictator’s hatchet man
in Europe.
* At the end of the 1991 Gulf War, the US government
urged the Iraqis to overthrow Saddam. This prompted
a strong uprising, but the US government refused
to provide support in any form. This refusal prompted
Saddam to use helicopter gun-ships to slaughter
dissidents by the hundreds.
* For a decade after the Gulf War, US fighter
planes enforced severe sanctions that led to immense
civilian suffering, including the death of at
least a half-million Iraqi infants.
* In the l980s -- the height of Saddam’s
cruel treatment of Kurds and other Iraqi citizens
-the US government served as the dictator’s
silent, uncomplaining partner, helping him battle
Iran.
* Before invading Iraq in 2003, the Bush administration
ignored offers of conciliation from Saddam emissaries.
* President Bush has failed to make any moves
to redress what is seen as America’s anti-Arab/Muslim
bias. Bush talks of independence for Palestinians
but continues to support without complaint Israel’s
brutal treatment of them.
Distrust of the US government is virulent throughout
the Arab world and beyond, not just in Iraq, and
our government does almost nothing to dispel it.
If the administration fails to establish credibility,
the rebellion will intensify. The best first step
is to convince the Iraqis quickly that we will
leave the minute the new directly-elected government
wants us out. President Bush must pledge, without
qualification, that the timing and extent of our
withdrawal will be controlled by Iraq.
To make this promise believable, Bush must state
clearly that our government will withdraw all
US military forces and all US contractors and
dismantle all US military bases within a few weeks
after the new government takes office. The only
exceptions should be military units or contractors
the new Iraqi government may wish to remain. Such
units will remain only as long as the new government
wishes.
Our government must also promise unequivocally
that once the new Iraqi government takes office,
the US diplomatic mission, now bursting with a
staff of ominous size - more than 2,000 persons,
the largest in recorded history - will quickly
be reduced to a standard level.
Whatever his original motives, Bush must take
prompt, rigorous steps to erase Iraqi fear of
US colonialism. Otherwise, his page in history
will be bleaker than President Lyndon Johnson’s
legacy from the Vietnam War.
In Iraq, trust -- not military manpower -- is
the greatest and gravest shortage. More troops
will inspire more insurgency, not less.
*Paul Findley, a Member of Congress 1961-83, writes
and lectures on Middle East issues.
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