{"id":318,"date":"2007-07-20T12:07:37","date_gmt":"2007-07-20T16:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=318"},"modified":"2007-07-20T12:20:47","modified_gmt":"2007-07-20T16:20:47","slug":"bushs-apology-for-the-war-in-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=318","title":{"rendered":"Bush’s Apology for the War in Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"
I don<\/title>I don’t write much about Neocons or neo-conservatism.<\/p>\n<p>The term covers too much ground and risks becoming just another world for everything bad.<\/p>\n<p>I have always preferred to discuss Right Zionists–the folks who <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zmag.org\/content\/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=10185\">championed the most fateful decisions undertaken after the US invasion of Iraq<\/a>: disbanding the Iraqi army, de-Baathification, and the “year of elections” in 2005.<\/p>\n<p>These are the audacious policies that sought to terminate Sunni Arab minority rule in Iraq and herald a new balance of power in the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n<p>But the old “Neocon” banner also included folks I call <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=134\">Unipolarists<\/a>–figures like William Kristol, Charles Krauthammer, Frederick Kagan, Niall Ferguson, and Max Boot, whose <em>defining feature<\/em> has never been a particular brand of Zionism (although none could be considered hostile to Israel!) but a generic brand of American Imperialism that seeks, above all, to project US power around the world and to thwart the power of Great Power rivals.<\/p>\n<p>One short-hand way of understanding the difference: most Right Zionists backed Bush in the 2000 Republican primaries while most Unipolarists backed John McCain.<\/p>\n<p>The adoption of the current “surge” strategy marks a victory for the “<a href=\"http:\/\/www.abcnews.go.com\/ThisWeek\/Politics\/story?id=2761375&page=2\">McCain Doctrine<\/a>” within the Bush administration.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A “Neocon” Split<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The distinction between the Unipolarists and the Right Zionists is becoming increasingly important as the two camps have split on internal Iraqi politics.<\/p>\n<p>It must be getting a little tense over at the American Enterprise Institute, home to leading voices (for example, Right Zionist <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aei.org\/scholars\/scholarID.99\/scholar.asp\">Reuel Marc Gerecht<\/a> and Unipolarist <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aei.org\/scholars\/scholarID.19,filter.all\/scholar.asp\"> Frederick Kagan<\/a>) from both warring camps.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Right Zionists: Stick with Maliki<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Right Zionists like Reuel Marc Gerecht and Fouad Ajami continue to support the original idea of Shiite political dominance in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>As I suggested in several earlier posts (<a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=225\">here<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=274\">here<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=279\">here<\/a>), Right Zionists tend to be quite pleased with the Maliki government, favor aggressive counter-insurgency against the ex-Baathist and nationalist Sunni insurgency, and give Moqtada al-Sadr some credit for playing a positive–if “dirty”–role on the ground in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>In short, Right Zionists support a “<a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=183\">Shiite Option<\/a>” or so-called “<a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=200\">80 Percent Solution<\/a>” in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Unipolarists: Dump Maliki<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Unipolarists may have given lip service to those ideas.<\/p>\n<p>No longer.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of the internal politics of Iraq, <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=310\">Unipolarists have now firmly aligned themselves with Right Arabists who favor the restoration of Sunni Arab power in Iraq<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Charles Krauthammer is explicit about this in his most recent <em>Washington Post<\/em> column, “<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/07\/19\/AR2007071901969.html\">The 20 Percent Solution<\/a>.”<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Ever since the December 2005 Iraqi elections, the United States has been \twaiting for the central government in Baghdad to pass grand national accords \ton oil, federalism and de-Baathification to unify and pacify the country. \tThe Maliki government has proved too sectarian, too weak and perhaps too \tdisposed to Iranian interests to rise to the task…<\/p>\n<p>For an interminable 18 months we waited for the 80 percent solution…<\/p>\n<p>The Petraeus-Crocker plan is the 20 percent solution: peel the Sunnis away \tfrom the insurgency by giving them the security and weaponry to fight the \tnew common enemy — al-Qaeda in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>Maliki & Co. are afraid we are arming Sunnis for the civil war to come. On \tthe other hand, we might be creating a rough balance of forces that would \tact as a deterrent to all-out civil war and encourage a relatively peaceful \taccommodation.<\/p>\n<p>In either case, that will be Iraq’s problem after we leave. For now, our \tproblem is al-Qaeda on the Sunni side and the extremist militias on the \tShiite side.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Sweet Little Lies<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Krauthammer’s embrace of the ex-Baathist Sunni insurgency should, in may ways, be cause for celebration among <a href=\"http:\/\/robertdreyfuss.com\/blog\/2007\/07\/that_iranus_alliance_in_iraq.html\"> those who have long criticized the Bush administration<\/a> for forging a US-Shiite alliance.<\/p>\n<p>But Krauthammer’s essay requires two little lies.<\/p>\n<p>“<strong>Cleansing” the 80 Percent Solution<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>First, it requires a small modification of the real basis of the original 80 percent solution.\u00c2\u00a0 Krauthammer writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>For an interminable 18 months we waited for the <strong>80 percent solution<\/strong> \t— for Nouri al-Maliki’s <strong>Shiite-Kurdish coalition to reach out to the \tSunnis<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The Right Zionists who still support the 80 percent solution have been far more realistic about the fact that the 80 percent solution implied <em>picking a winner<\/em> in the Iraqi civil war.<\/p>\n<p>Here is <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=279\">Gerecht on the 80 percent solution<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Sunni insurgency will likely cease when the Sunnis, who have been \taddicted to power and the perception of the Shiites as a God-ordained \tunderclass, know in their hearts that they cannot win against the Shiites, \tthat continued fighting will only make their situation worse. <strong>Thanks in \tpart to the ferocity of vengeful Shiite militias, we are getting there<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Here is <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=274\">Ajami<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In retrospect, the defining moment for Mr. Maliki had been those early \thours of Dec. 30, when Saddam Hussein was sent to the gallows\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<p>The blunt truth of this new phase in the fight for Iraq is that the Sunnis \thave lost the battle for Baghdad…<\/p>\n<p>Whole mixed districts in the city\u00e2\u20ac\u201cRasafa, Karkh\u00e2\u20ac\u201chave been emptied of their \tSunni populations. Even the old Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiyyah is \tembattled and besieged. What remains for the Sunnis are the western \toutskirts…<\/p>\n<p>No one knows with any precision the sectarian composition of today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \tBaghdad, but there are estimates that the Sunnis may now account for 15% of \tthe city\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s population. Behind closed doors, Sunni leaders speak of the great \tcalamity that befell their community. They admit to a great disappointment \tin the Arab states that fed the flames but could never alter the contest on \tthe ground in Iraq. No Arab cavalry had ridden, or was ever going to ride, \tto the rescue of the Sunnis of Iraq\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<p>Now the ground has shifted, and among the Sunnis there is a widespread \tsentiment of disinheritance and loss.<\/p>\n<p>The Mahdi Army, more precisely the underclass of Sadr City, had won the \tfight for Baghdad.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Some folks might be tempted to call all this <em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.time.com\/time\/world\/article\/0,8599,1550441,00.html\">ethnic cleansing<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Mind you, both Gerecht and Ajami approve of the outcome.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bush’s Apology for the War in Iraq<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Krauthammer’s second little lie is one that is also at the center of Bush’s latest talking points: our top enemy in Iraq is <em>al-Qaeda<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Many Bush administration critics were probably yelling at their television sets during President Bush’s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/07\/12\/AR2007071200937_pf.html\"> recent press conference<\/a> when he once again made the “<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/linkset\/2005\/04\/11\/LI2005041100879.html\">9\/11-Iraq connection<\/a>” and made it seem like <em>al-Qaeda<\/em> was our one true enemy in Iraq.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who \tattacked us in America on September the 11, and that’s why what happens in \tIraq matters to security here at home.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I know, it is crazy.<\/p>\n<p>But critics of the Right Zionist “Shiite Option” in Iraq should understand that this is <em>Bush’s way of conceding your point<\/em>: we were <em>wrong<\/em> (or even crazy) to target the Sunni Baathist political and military establishment in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>Not to worry!<\/p>\n<p>Behind all the talk of al-Qaeda is hidden <em>an apology<\/em>: we are waving the white flag in our battle against the nationalist Sunni insurgency.\u00c2\u00a0 We were wrong to target them as an enemy.\u00c2\u00a0 We are sorry.\u00c2\u00a0 The Baathists are our allies, just Dad said at the end of Operation Desert Storm.<\/p>\n<p>This is a <em>complete reversal<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 No more “stay the course.”<\/p>\n<p>In order to save face, however, Bush will not <em>declare<\/em> defeat at the hands of the Sunni Arab nationalist insurgency.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, the new emphasis on al-Qaeda in Iraq serves as the basis for a <em>bait and switch<\/em>: we have a new (smaller) enemy in Iraq.\u00c2\u00a0 Not the former regime of Saddam Hussein but <em>al-Qaeda<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 And, thankfully, the Sunni Arab “former regime elements” are prepared to be our allies in the fight against Osama’s Iraqi friends.<\/p>\n<p>It is Bush’s casual, everyman, down-home way of saying that <em>all those US soldiers who died fighting against the ex-Baathist Sunni insurgency died in vane<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 Oops.\u00c2\u00a0 Sorry.<\/p>\n<p>But, that said, we must now <em>finish<\/em> this war with a fight against al-Qaeda in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>Oh… and maybe those crazy, uppity Shiites…\u00c2\u00a0 We might have to fight them, too.<\/p>\n<p>And their friends in Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, there is a link between Iran and al-Qaeda.\u00c2\u00a0 So, it should be a seamless operation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I donI don’t write much about Neocons or neo-conservatism. The term covers too much ground and risks becoming just another world for everything bad. I have always preferred to discuss Right Zionists–the folks who championed the most fateful decisions undertaken after the US invasion of Iraq: disbanding the Iraqi army, de-Baathification, and the “year of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,3,11,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318"}],"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=318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}