IVAW on Iraq Study Group Report: “It’s the Occupation, Stupid!”
After nine months of extensive study and research, the Iraq Study Group has produced a comprehensive report that makes a realistic and horrifying assessment of the situation in Iraq as it stands today and proposes an incredibly ambitious and admittedly imperfect plan for the future of our involvement there. The report alludes to gross mismanagement by outgoing Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, but offers no critique of the U.S.’s preemptive invasion based on lies. While the report calls for some important steps toward undoing the quagmire in Iraq -- notably the need to send a message to the Iraqi people that the U.S. has no plans to stay indefinitely and should dismantle its permanent military bases there -- it ignores the fundamental circumstance that underlies the crisis we face in Iraq.
The real problem in Iraq is the U.S. military occupation.
The Iraq Study Group’s report has three basic recommendations:
1. It proposes a comprehensive diplomatic effort regionally and internationally to support stabilization of Iraq.
2. It lays out ambitious benchmarks for the Iraqi government to get them to “stand up” so that we can “stand down.”
3. It recommends maintaining significant troop levels in Iraq to provide logistical support, rapid response capabilities, and training to the Iraqi Army and Police well into 2008.
Each of these recommendations is problematic and will not end the war.
1. The Iraq Study Group report calls for diplomatic efforts with other countries in the region and beyond to help the U.S. stabilize Iraq. While there is no doubt that the U.S. should engage in sincere diplomatic efforts, this is unlikely given the U.S.'s track record in the region. The U.S. showed complete disinterest in genuine diplomacy during the build up to the war, and acted unilaterally and preemptively in its invasion of Iraq. The Bush administration, with the blessings of Congress, made it clear that the U.S. was going to invade Iraq regardless of a U.N. decision and despite the objections of the international community, including nations in the Middle East. After millions of people worldwide, including Americans, protested the invasion, Bush called them a “focus group.” We have lost credibility in the region and have shown scorn for diplomacy and international law and opinion. As long as the U.S. is militarily occupying Iraq, diplomatic efforts will fail.
Unless diplomacy is accompanied by a swift withdrawal, U.S. troops and innocent Iraqis will continue to be killed and wounded. A study published this October in The Lancet medical journal estimated 655,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the U.S. led war and occupation. The death toll of U.S. service members is quickly approaching 3,000, with at least an additional 50,000 wounded. In the time the Iraq Study Group spent developing their report, roughly 700 Americans and 27,000 Iraqis were killed in the increasing violence and chaos. What we need is an end to the occupation, not more inaction and stalling tactics from Washington. Each day this war continues, our brothers and sisters in the military are being killed and wounded, along with untold numbers of Iraqi civilians.
2. The Iraq Study Group report suggests that we need to “help Iraqis help themselves,” reflecting the condescending attitude of an occupying nation toward one of the oldest civilizations on earth. The problem in Iraq is not the Iraqi government’s failure to “stand up.” The foremost problem in Iraq is the U.S. occupation. As long as the occupation continues, any Iraqi government working in tandem with the United States will lack legitimacy among the Iraqi people, the vast majority of whom want the U.S. military to leave their country. Specific recommendations of the report appropriately call for the U.S. to send a clear message to the Iraqi people that we have no intention to stay in Iraq long-term or control Iraqi oil. But at the same time, the report rejects the idea of any timetable for withdrawal, and makes it clear that the U.S. will maintain a significant military force there well into 2008.
The Iraqi government's inability to provide security and stability has little to do with any incompetence of the Iraqis, but is a direct result of the chaos and political disunity that comes with this U.S. occupation. As the report describes, without the necessary national unity, the Iraqi government has little control outside of the Green Zone. It has been ineffective in providing its people with basic services such as electricity, drinking water, health care, and education, as well as being unable to provide even minimal security. Many Iraqis see the government as a tool of the U.S. occupation and no amount of “carrot and stick” incentives from the U.S. will change this basic reality. Until the occupation leaves, no Iraqi government will have the popular support of the Iraqi people and therefore will be unable to gain control and effect positive changes.
3. The Iraq Study Group recommends significant numbers of U.S. troops staying in Iraq through 2008 to continue to train and equip the Iraqi Army and Police. The report advises the number of U.S. troops assigned to this mission to rise from the current 4,000 to approximately 20,000 U.S. soldiers embedded with Iraqi units. Again, the problem in Iraq is the U.S. occupation, and no level of U.S. training of Iraqi military forces will succeed in providing security in Iraq. A consideration that the Iraq Study Group leaves out is the issue of Iraqi military loyalty. Many members of both the Iraqi army and police forces are loyal not to the Iraqi government, but to various local and ethnic militias and leaders who, in many cases, are doing more to support their needs and interests than the national government.
Many of us who served in Iraq training the Iraqi Army and Police can attest to the difficulty inherent in this relationship. A core problem is that there is a huge cultural and language barrier between us. In addition, from the U.S. troops' standpoint, there is a lack of trust of Iraqis because of a history of many Iraqi Army and police being members of militias or the insurgency. Every day we hear reports of armed men in military or police uniforms kidnapping and killing Iraqi civilians. Often, U.S. forces discover that the Iraqis they were working to train were giving information and assistance to the insurgency in order to attack American personnel. And from the standpoint of the Iraqis, the U.S. troops are seen as occupiers who have caused immense harm and destruction in their communities. Iraqis have seen the U.S. military operate with reckless disregard of their human rights, torturing them at Abu Ghraib, leveling Fallujah killing hundreds of civilians, and massacring children in Haditha. Iraqis cannot forget these war crimes that have largely gone unpunished.
No amount of training of the Iraqi Army will change the fact that as long as we occupy Iraq the insurgency will continue, Al Qaeda terrorists will be drawn to Iraq, and militias spurred by sectarian tensions will flourish. Providing the Iraqi Army with more weapons and equipment will only increase the chances that such weapons will be used against U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians.
The findings of the Iraq Study Group will be used as cover for the administration and Congress to save face about the horrible blunders of this war, and in effect, will allow the occupation to continue indefinitely. It's easy to analyze the problems from afar, but to those of us who have experienced the ground truth in Iraq and have sacrificed the most, we know that eventual peace and stability in Iraq begins with immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces. The only way this will happen is if the American people force Congress to stop funding the war. There are presently enough funds from the fall 2006 budget appropriations to ensure troops will have all supplies and equipment they need to come home quickly and safely. But we must not allow further appropriations for our continued occupation in Iraq to prolong the suffering of our troops and the Iraqi people.
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