{"id":227,"date":"2007-01-17T23:53:39","date_gmt":"2007-01-18T04:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=227"},"modified":"2007-02-27T22:01:41","modified_gmt":"2007-02-28T03:01:41","slug":"gerecht-cheney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=227","title":{"rendered":"Gerecht & Cheney"},"content":{"rendered":"
Maybe Reuel Marc Gerecht doesn<\/title>Maybe Reuel Marc Gerecht doesn’t matter.\u00c2\u00a0 Gerecht does not now and has never served as a member of the Bush administration’s foreign policy team.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps his views on Iraq are merely those of a think tank wonk pontificating and prescribing from the sidelines as history rolls along without even a passing glance in his direction.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe.<\/p>\n<p>But the real issue is not Gerecht’s personal <em>influence<\/em> but the possibility that his views can be considered <em>representative <\/em>of those held by figures in the White House whose service inside the administration seems to imply a veritable gag order.<\/p>\n<p>Can Gerecht be taken to be a proxy for the views of <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=211\">David Wurmser<\/a>, the current “Middle East” expert on Cheney’s National Security staff whose wife–<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hudson.org\/learn\/index.cfm?fuseaction=staff_bio&eid=Wurmser\">Meyrav Wurmser<\/a>–referenced just such a gag order in <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=212\">a recent interview<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>There is no way to gauge, from the outside, Wurmser’s current influence on Cheney’s thinking.\u00c2\u00a0 But Wurmser serves at the pleasure of the Vice President. He has not yet been shown the door, nor has he resigned in protest.<\/p>\n<p>I have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zmag.org\/content\/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=10185\"> previously noted<\/a> the strong continuities between Wurmser’s earlier published work on Iraq and Gerecht’s writing.\u00c2\u00a0 Prior to his service in the Bush administration, Wurmser was the Middle East expert at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aei.org\/publications\/fn.David,ln.Wurmser,id.0\/pub_byauthor_list.asp\"> American Enterprise Institute<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Gerecht is his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aei.org\/scholars\/filter.,scholarID.19\/scholar.asp\">successor in that role<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>All of which goes to the value of attending to Gerecht’s views, even as these views are <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.psaonline.org\/2007\/01\/16\/korb-vs-gerecht-on-iraq-and-the-surge\/\"> disparaged by critics<\/a> who dismiss them as “wishful thinking and unsubstantiated assertions\u00c2\u00a0flavored with a healthy dose of ad hominem attack against any who question him.”<\/p>\n<p>As I have noted in a <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=225\"> recent post<\/a>, Gerecht has been promoting what is best described as a stridently pro-Shiite option abandons all pretense to national reconciliation in Iraq, even as he remains dismayed by the level of factional infighting within the Bush administration.<\/p>\n<p>His most recent missive is a <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> op-ed entitled “<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aei.org\/publications\/filter.all,pubID.25466\/pub_detail.asp\"><span class=\"BodyText\">Petraeus<\/span> Time<\/a>.”<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span class=\"BodyText\">The good news is that by emphasizing a military, \tnot political, strategy to diminish Iraq’s debilitating violence, <strong>the \tpresident has correctly set aside one of the primary factors destroying the \tShiite Arab center<\/strong>. While waiting for <strong>a “political solution” to the \tSunni insurgency<\/strong>, we watched Shiite timidity and patience turn to \tanger–and to a revenge which now threatens the integrity of the Shiite-led \tIraqi government… The reversal of this soft-power, politics-not-troops \tmentality is an essential step forward…<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"BodyText\">Nevertheless, there is a dismaying hesitancy in \tthe military’s and the White House’s deliberations on this conflict. <strong> \tAlthough the president wants a new approach<\/strong>, the <strong>Pentagon, the State \tDepartment and even the National Security Council appear wedded to the past<\/strong>. \tThe contradiction between what the president says and what his government \tdoes has never been greater.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"BodyText\">Presumably, Cheney <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=205\">stands behind the president<\/a> in favoring such a “new approach.”\u00c2\u00a0 This, at least, has been a persistent rumor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"BodyText\">Gerecht–whose tenure with the CIA <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Know-Thine-Enemy-Journey-Revolutionary\/dp\/0374182191\"> focused on Iran<\/a> and who has been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aei.org\/publications\/pubID.20019,filter.all\/pub_detail.asp\"> consistently hawkish<\/a> on Iran–exhibits <em>no fear<\/em> of Shiite power in Iraq.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span class=\"BodyText\">The administration needs to rethink its understanding of Iraqi culture \tand politics, as the “new” strategy still contains ideas that have \tcatastrophically guided American officials in the Green Zone ever since \tSunni Arab insurgents started killing Americans in significant numbers. U.S. \tofficials still believe they must soon see sectarian reconciliation, a \treversal of de-Baathification, and a nonsectarian, equitable distribution of \toil wealth.<\/p>\n<p>All these achievements are meant to placate the aggrieved Sunni Arabs, \twho represent 15% of the population…<\/p>\n<p>For the serious ex-Baathists, Sunni supremacists and Iraqi Sunni \tfundamentalists–the lethal hardcore of the insurgency–it’s still a good \tbet that they’re not into democratic negotiations…<\/p>\n<p>If the U.S. and Iraqi governments are going to bring peace to the “Sunni \ttriangle,” they must break the back of the insurgency. A minority, used to \tthe prerogatives of a communitarian dictatorship, the Sunnis have been \ttrying to derail the new Iraq: They must come to know that they will lose \teverything if they don’t abandon violence as their principal political \ttool… This means, as it has always meant, <strong>a combined American and \tShiite Iraqi occupation of major Sunni Arab cities<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Baghdad is the first step…<\/p>\n<p>Gen. Petraeus will have to deal with <strong>Muqtada al-Sadr<\/strong>. The thuggish \tson of Iraq’s most revered clerical family, he <strong>has become for many \tShiites in Baghdad a rapturously praised defender. This esteem is merited<\/strong>: \tHe, not any American general, increased the security of the average Shiite \tin the capital. And if he is smart, he’ll attack the Americans before they \thave the chance to deploy much new strength. If the Americans successfully \tdown Sunni insurgents in the capital, then they will go after Mr. Sadr.<\/p>\n<p>But the U.S. military should absolutely not go after Mr. Sadr first…<\/p>\n<p>The key here is how Shiites view the first encounter. If it goes against \tthe insurgents… <strong>[Sadr] just may play along<\/strong>. He and his forces were \tmauled by the Americans in 2004. Since then they haven’t been particularly \tbold in attacking U.S. soldiers. Mr. Sadr has recently manifested some \tstatesmen-like behavior, and has been more correct in his behavior toward \tGrand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the spiritual guide of Iraq’s Shia and a \tbulwark of moderation.<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Who else but Gerecht speaks of Sadr in such respectful terms?<\/p>\n<p>Certainly not the <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=158\"> military brass<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The only person I can think of is… the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/news\/releases\/2006\/10\/20061030-7.html\">Vice President of the United States<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>KUDLOW: I also want to ask you, in that same vain of American toughness \tin winning the war, this guy al Sadr is still out there. There’s been a \twarrant for his arrest for three years. His death squads, his militias, \tthey’re killing rival Shias, they’re killing Sunnis. They tried to plot to \ttake over the interior department in Baghdad. Why is he still on the loose? \tA lot of people say, <strong>why don’t we rub out al Sadr? <\/strong>Why don’t we take \thim into custody? That would be a sign of winning…<\/p>\n<p>VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: He is — obviously speaks for a significant number \tof Iraqis, has a strong following…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe Reuel Marc Gerecht doesnMaybe Reuel Marc Gerecht doesn’t matter.\u00c2\u00a0 Gerecht does not now and has never served as a member of the Bush administration’s foreign policy team.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps his views on Iraq are merely those of a think tank wonk pontificating and prescribing from the sidelines as history rolls along without even a passing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227"}],"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=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}