May 27, 2004
LETTING GO:
Iraqis Need to Bear the Burden (Melana Zyla Vickers, 05/26/2004, Tech Central Station)
"Can (Iraqi forces) opt out of an operation if they don't want to or something of that nature? And the answer has to be yes," Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 18. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz added: "I agree exactly."If ever there was an illustration of what's wrong with the administration's perception of the U.S. role in Iraq, this is it: Current Iraq policy puts the U.S. military far too much in the front and center in that country, and relies far too little on transferring the burden of fighting armed insurgents, nation-building and policework to the Iraqis. The reasoning ranges from the Iraqis being unready and untrained, to them being unwilling, to them being unable to take the lead role in their own security and defense.
Yet sidelining the Iraqis with exceptions and concessions such as the opt-out clause is damaging to both Iraq and the United States. It puts off the day when a new Iraq is militarily master of its own house. And it shoves the U.S. -- which was never supposed to be the bull's eye of insurgents and antagonists in Iraq, only the liberator of the Iraqi people -- more deeply into the burdensome, dangerous, and increasingly unpopular position of military occupier.
Conservatives understand how reliance on the state makes citizens dependent, why keep a whole other nation dependent on us? Posted by Orrin Judd at May 27, 2004 6:58 AM
It's an election year.
Let the Iraqis start their civil war in '05.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at May 27, 2004 9:28 AMWe should have given them more responsibility for non-military operations first, and long ago. That would have gotten them started. A good example was the interim constitution. Bremer asked the Iraqis to hold off because of the delay with the Shiites, then he announced it himself. Bad move, and typical of many other actions on his part.
Posted by: Buffalo Bill at May 27, 2004 11:06 AMAt least 8 ministries are fully under Iraqi control.
Posted by: David Cohen at May 27, 2004 12:24 PMDave - I think the number is up to 12 now (as noted in Bush's speech Monday). And the number should go up over the next month.
In a onth the whole government is getting handed over. Then the people who argue the handover should have happened sooner will sound like the people criticizing Bush for starting the war in April instead of January.