{"id":222,"date":"2007-01-08T06:35:12","date_gmt":"2007-01-08T11:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=222"},"modified":"2007-02-27T22:02:05","modified_gmt":"2007-02-28T03:02:05","slug":"same-as-it-ever-was","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=222","title":{"rendered":"Same as It Ever Was"},"content":{"rendered":"
Bush<\/title>Bush’s Iraq Policy Review looks set to announce that on the political front in Iraq there will be <em>no change<\/em>, even as the administration contemplates a military escalation.<\/p>\n<p>After floating some <em>very radical ideas<\/em> for abandoning “national reconciliation” and outreach to Iraqi Sunni insurgents–the so-called “<a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=200\">80 percent Solution<\/a>“–the Bush administration now appears to be ready for more of the same.<\/p>\n<p>Robin Wright of the <em>Washington Post<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/01\/06\/AR2007010601489_pf.html\"> reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>During its two-month interagency review, the Bush administration has \tstruggled the most to come up with proposals to jump-start the stalled \tpolitical process in Iraq, according to U.S. officials and Western \tdiplomats. The fate of the revised strategy will be determined as much by \tnew movement on Iraq’s combustible political front as by success on the \tbattlefield, administration officials said.<\/p>\n<p>But the emerging package looks slim and, <strong>absent last-minute additions, \tappears to be more of the same<\/strong>, according to sources who have been \tbriefed.<\/p>\n<p>The centerpiece of the political plan is the creation of <strong>a national \treconciliation government that would bring together the two main Shiite \tparties with the two largest Kurdish parties and the Sunni Iraqi Islamic \tParty<\/strong>, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials. The goal is to marginalize \tMoqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the largest and most powerful Shiite militia \tand head of a group that has 30 seats in parliament and five cabinet posts.<\/p>\n<p>To ensure participation of Sunni moderates, the Bush administration is \tpressing the Maliki government to take three other major steps: Amend the \tconstitution to address Sunni concerns, pass a law on the distribution of \tIraq’s oil revenue and change the ruling that forbids the participation of \tformer Baath Party officials.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=164\">Been there<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Done that.<\/p>\n<p>Or, more to the point: Been there.\u00c2\u00a0 Tried to do that.\u00c2\u00a0 Was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/worldlatest\/story\/0,,-6300409,00.html\"> blocked by Grand Ayatollah Sistani<\/a> who allegedly refused to allow the US to marginalize Sadr.<\/p>\n<p>Little wonder, with word that the US is determined to pursue this course, that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alertnet.org\/thenews\/newsdesk\/MAC759981.htm\">Sadr has gone to meet with Sistani<\/a> for clarification and confirmation of support.<\/p>\n<p>So, is the US prepared to move without the blessing of Sistani?\u00c2\u00a0 Good luck with that.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the same old <em>political<\/em> battles will certainly accompany the proposed escalation on the security front.<\/p>\n<p>The military brass is spoiling for a fight with Shiite militias, if not Sadr himself.\u00c2\u00a0 Here is the <em>Washington Post <\/em>report on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/01\/07\/AR2007010700444_pf.html\"> political contours of the US military surge<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A top U.S. commander in Iraq said Sunday that <strong>previous attempts to \thalt sectarian killings in Baghdad had failed in part because of<\/strong> a \tshortage of Iraqi troops and <strong>a tight focus on Sunni Arab neighborhoods<\/strong>, \tand that those lessons would be incorporated into a new strategy to slow the \tviolence in the capital.<\/p>\n<p>Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the number two commander in Iraq, declined \tto discuss a proposed surge of thousands of additional U.S. and Iraqi troops \tin Baghdad, saying he preferred to wait for President Bush to outline the \tpolicy. But he said he <strong>wanted his forces to begin with a push against \tboth Sunni and Shiite fighters<\/strong>…<\/p>\n<p>“You have to go after both Sunni and Shia neighborhoods,” he said. \t“Together Forward was mostly focused on Sunni neighborhoods, and we’ve got \tto do both.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/in.today.reuters.com\/News\/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-01-08T023203Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-282578-2.xml\"> Reuters<\/a> suggests that Odierno hedges a bit on Sadr and the Mahdi Army:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Odierno said U.S. forces would leave dealing with Sadr to Iraqi \tauthorities. “I’m not sure we take him down,” he said.<\/p>\n<p>“There are some extreme elements (of the Mehdi Army) … and we will go \tafter them. I will allow the government to decide whether (Sadr) is part of \tit or not. He is currently working within the political system.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The military brass consistently emphasized <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=189\">a split between Sadr and his followers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In any event, some of Prime Minister Maliki’s aides are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/worldlatest\/story\/0,,-6329009,00.html\"> already throwing cold water<\/a> on Odierno’s plan for a more balanced security crackdown in Baghdad.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Hassan al-Suneid, a key aid and member of al-Maliki’s Dawa Party, said \tthe Iraqi leader had committed 20,000 soldiers to the operation that would \tcall upon American troops and airpower only when needed…<\/p>\n<p>Al-Suneid, who is also a member of parliament, said the <strong>new drive to free \tBaghdad from the grip of sectarian violence would focus initially on Sunni \tinsurgent strongholds in western Baghdad<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Indeed, the Shiite appetite for a decidedly sectarian form of counter-insurgency seems undiminished.\u00c2\u00a0 As <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/cgi-bin\/article.cgi?f=\/c\/a\/2007\/01\/07\/MNG1FNEEHB1.DTL\"> Robert Collier reports<\/a> in the <em>San Francisco Chronicle<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>For their part, Shiite hard-liners also say they support reconciliation \tefforts. But in interviews with The Chronicle, they <strong>called for U.S. \tofficials to stop advocating the inclusion of Sunnis and to give military \tbacking to a full-scale Shiite offensive in Sunni areas<\/strong>. These Shiites \tdescribed their opponents as “takfiri Baathists,” combining the term for \tSunni religious extremists with the name of Hussein’s secular-leaning party \t— two groups that most outside observers say are often at each other’s \tthroats.<\/p>\n<p>“The American government must give the Iraqi government complete \tsovereignty, which means that the Iraqi army will have <strong>the authority to \tstrike the takfiri Baathists with an iron hand,<\/strong> without any interference \tfrom the Americans,” said <strong>Hadi al-Amiri, leader of the Badr Brigade<\/strong>, \ta Shiite militia that has been largely incorporated into the Interior \tMinistry and, along with al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army, is widely blamed for \tdeath-squad attacks on Sunnis.<\/p>\n<p>Many al-Sadr followers, including the Mahdi Army, appear markedly more \tsectarian than their leader.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As I noted in <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=221\">a previous post<\/a>, there are competing conceptions about the purpose of a military “surge” in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>The Shiite visions for Baghdad articulated in Robert Collier’s report seem to have more in common with Reuel Marc Gerecht’s <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=217\">views on counter-insurgency<\/a> than with Odierno’s.<\/p>\n<p>Right Zionists like Gerecht are still looking for “victory” in Iraq.\u00c2\u00a0 [Update: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aei.org\/publications\/filter.all,pubID.25407\/pub_detail.asp\"> new Gerecht essay<\/a> emphasizes his basis for hope, albeit not on the basis of the path set to be adopted by the White House.]<\/p>\n<p>Odierno, not so much.\u00c2\u00a0 Reuters <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alertnet.org\/thenews\/newsdesk\/PAR748986.htm\">reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>U.S. Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno, in charge of combat forces in \tIraq, said on Sunday U.S. commanders had offered several recommendations and \tsome did not involve more troops….<\/p>\n<p>He also sought to play down U.S. public expectations of what could be \tachieved over insurgents, saying an overwhelming “77-7” win — to use a \tsports metaphor — “<strong>ain’t going to happen<\/strong>“.”It’s a different \tconcept. <strong>There will be no victory parade when we leave here. There never \twas going to be<\/strong>,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Oh.<\/p>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BushBush’s Iraq Policy Review looks set to announce that on the political front in Iraq there will be no change, even as the administration contemplates a military escalation. After floating some very radical ideas for abandoning “national reconciliation” and outreach to Iraqi Sunni insurgents–the so-called “80 percent Solution“–the Bush administration now appears to be ready […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}