Le Devoir
Friday 20 April 2007
The week was not over before it proved to already be one of the bloodiest in Iraq's recent history. In fact, barely had Shiite religious leader Moqtada al-Sadr ordered the resignation of the ministers wearing his colors, than a series of explosions blasted out. Its source? The Sunni.
The chronology of the latest episode in the Iraqi tragedy began when the populist Sadr indicated that he would no longer collaborate in the management of state business. With that blow, he undoubtedly weakened Prime Minister al-Maliki's government, which, moreover, must fear that this empty-chair policy will be followed by another call to action. Which? That Sadr's deputies abstain from voting in the Parliament. Without their support, Maliki's survival will be hanging by a thread.
This withdrawal from current affairs decided by a leader about whom it is unknown whether he is still in Iraq or has fled to Iran follows directly from the military strategy ordered by President Bush at the beginning of the year. Under cover of the negotiations pertaining to the increase in the American contingent based in Iraq, Maliki and the White House had obtained [a pledge] that the members of the Mahdi Army Sadr heads would adopt a low profile. In other words, that they would leave their rifles and other weapons in the cupboards.
The Sunni militias capitalized on that self-restraint by employing methods more violent than ever before. Observing that their Shiite enemies had regrouped, if one may call it that, behind the frail screen constituted by the official army, they increased suicide attacks. And did so with an ardor all the more marked because they - with al-Qaeda at the head of the line - knew that the constitution of official forces as decided by the Pentagon was a gigantic fiasco. Here's why.
According to an analysis signed by Andrew Exum, an American officer, the Pentagon bonzes committed the master mistake of establishing a defense system that more or less reproduced the model set up in the United States. So what? The US system, turned towards the outside, was conceived to respond to foreign threats. But what Iraq needs right now is an infrastructure appropriate to confronting domestic threats.
The absence of perspicacity the Pentagon has displayed has been confirmed by this enormity: all Iraqis engaged in the armed forces have been forbidden to bring their weapons home. With no trust in the soldiers, it was feared that they would supply the different clans that are killing each other off with revolvers and other weapons. That has been noted on several occasions. But what has been observed most is that hundreds of the soldiers, along with their family members, have been massacred ... while they were unarmed.
Result: this large-scale carnage of Iraqis in uniform has had the effect of slowing down the rebuilding of the country's defenses enormously. And that for the reason you will already have guessed: the lines of individuals who decide to sign up have petered out as the rumors about the murders of those already enlisted have been confirmed. On this front, it must be said; American policy has proved to be a disaster.
So we were not surprised to learn that no later than yesterday the Democratic leader of the Senate, Harry Reid, declared: "The war is lost." Sticking obstinately to his policy, President Bush retorted by jeering at these observations, even though many Republicans have begun to share them. After preparing a war on the basis of lies, now President Bush is lying to himself.
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