Middle East turmoil makes a mockery of Bush Administration goals there
"Peter Galbraith, a sometime U.S. diplomat, journalist and foreign-policy analyst, has a solution to stop the ever-widening cyclone of sectarian violence that has engulfed Iraq and made a mockery of U.S. goals there. Let the country fall apart, he writes in ``The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End.'' That, he says, is the only way to give the region the framework it needs to restore stability in the post-Saddam Hussein era.
To a large extent, that has already happened, Gailbraith writes. The Kurds have effectively had their own state since 1991, when the U.S. guaranteed their security with a no-fly zone after the first Gulf War. Further to the south, Iraq's Shiites and Sunnis are now pulling away from each other, even as they carry out increasingly horrible vendettas. Eight of Iraq's nine southern provinces are dominated by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the country's main Shiite party.
On Sunday a suicide bomber detonated explosives in a cafe packed with Shi'ites in northern Iraq, killing 26 people and injuring 22, an Iraqi general said. This morning at least 40 people, including women and children, were killed in a car bomb blast and shootings by gunmen in a market in the town of Mahmudiyah, south of the Iraqi capital. Also, gunmen seized a top Oil Ministry official, the second major kidnapping in as many days. Corruption was cited in Iraq's Oil Industry by U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker in the US Congress last week. He said that "massive corruption" and "a lot of theft is going on" in Iraq's government-controlled oil industry and that this is hampering the country's ability to govern itself. In Baghdad, gunmen seized Adel Kazzaz, director of the North Oil Co., shortly after he left the ministry, said spokesman Assem Jihad. The kidnapping came a day after gunmen abducted the head of Iraq's National Olympic Committee and 30 other people. Meanwhile in the south, a British soldier was killed and another wounded during a raid in Basra, the British military said. As of today the records show that 2775 coalition soldiers have died since the beginning of the conflict and this year alone some 8000 civilians and Iraqi security forces were killed.
Newsweek reports that Bush must realize that the two major agendas of his presidency—antiterrorism and the promotion of democracy—are now colliding with each other in the Middle East. In the longer run, however, the calls Bush didn't—or couldn't make— might mean the difference in containing the explosive situation there. As part of his policy of isolating terror-supporting groups and nations, the Bush administration has no relationship with any of the other parties at war or the states behind them. That apparently means no dialogue, even through back channels, with Iran, Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas. A diplomat at the UN noted: "These are the consequences of a completely failed Bush Administration Middle East Policy and probably only an international peace keeping force (excluding US and British forces)based in Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine can stabilize this explosive situation. Israeli Government spokesmen have been lukewarm about the idea, but would probably accept it with some prodding by the US. In the meantime Israeli radio talk shows are now discussing the consequences of possible Israeli air strikes against Iran and Syria."
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