JimfromPennsylvania

At this time it is not clear how Washington is going to get a supplemental funding bill passed that will fund the troops in Iraq. One thing should be certain though that if the Congress and the President pass a supplemental bill that has benchmarks with negative consequences on the Iraq government they will be making a galactic size mistake. Already one of the major reasons why the Iraq parliament has not passed pieces of the reconciliation legislation that make up the benchmarks is because many Iraqis perceive this legislation as an effort which sacrifices the Iraqi peoples’ interests in favor of the U.S. government’s interests. Passage of benchmark legislation will only make things massively worse because it will give these suspicious Iraqis more reason for distrust. This benchmark legislation will also cause: continuation and/or escalation of the violence in Iraq as the militants power is bolstered as Iraqis lose hope in the political process; and increased direct attacks against U.S. troops from Iraqi militants as punishment on America’s interference in Iraqi internal matters.

If Washington passes this benchmark legislation Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will have to ask the U.S. to leave Iraq. The benchmark legislation will be perceived by the Iraqi public and the Arab World as a violation of the Iraqi people’s sovereignty, as America illegitimately imposing its will on Iraq, Prime Minister Maliki will have to order the U.S.’s departure or his credibility will be over, he and his government will be forever labeled as not independent of the U.S.. If Prime Minister Maliki doesn’t give the order his ability to bring about passage of the reconciliation legislation and lead Iraq to succeed as a country will be permanently over. If Prime Minister Maliki doesn’t have the courage to do this he should resign or the Iraq political leaders who hold Prime Minister Maliki in office should withdrawal their support for him and allow the Iraqi people to put in a Prime Minister that will accomplish this needed work.

What makes Washington’s handling of Iraq so incredibly sad and tragic is that the vast majority of the members of Congress across party lines are smart enough and moral enough to know what is the right course for the U.S. to be taking in Iraq! One doesn’t rise to the level of being a member of the Congress of the United States without such wherewithal. A proper analysis of the Iraq matter would produce the following.

1) There is not a military solution to the Iraq security problem, the problem necessitates a joint military and political solution. The political solution involves the Iraqi government passing laws insuring fair distribution of Iraq’s natural resources wealth and generous allowance of former Baathist Party members to re-enter the Iraq government, disarming the militias, stopping governmental corruption, etc..

2) Only Iraqis can determine whether or not Iraq succeeds as a democratic, non-terrorist, stable and prosperous country. Iraq is a sovereign independent country and as really terrible as things could get for the Middle East region and for the world if Iraq fails and the possible nightmarish scenarios play out the U.S. government has to accept this reality. The U.S. government’s failure here is rapidly becoming too much for the American people to bear especially in terms of the high loss of American lives and the loss of desperately needed financial resources for the American people.

3) Progress on solving Iraq’s political problems to improve the security picture has been poor because Iraq’s leaders lack the political will to make the needed compromises. The U.S. government has one and only one moral option to have an effect on this Iraqi leadership inaction and the consequences of exercising this option are not at all clear it might have no effect and it may begin a chain reaction that results in Iraq collapsing. This option is to withdrawal all U.S. combat troops from Iraq. Such a withdrawal would necessitate the Iraqi political leaders having to deal alone with the formidable militant forces in Iraq. It would then be an inescapable decision time for Iraq’s political leaders, they would have to decide to make the political deals (subordinate their sect’s interest a little) that will bring about the cessation of aggression by these militants; otherwise, these militant groups will eventually topple the Iraqi government and the country of Iraq will fail. No one really knows if Iraq’s political leaders will make this decision when the time comes. Fairness requires the American people to look at this issue like this, one day the leaders of Iraq are going to have to face this decision and the American people have limits on how many American citizens and how many tens of billions of dollars they will sacrifice to put off that day so Iraq’s political leaders can find the character to make this decision. The day is fast approaching when America’s government leaders and people will come to the realization that their military cannot adequately solve Iraq’s security problems try as hard as they can and at that time it is time for America’s military to leave Iraq. The duty of America’s government leaders to the American people demand such action because the costs of the Iraq War at that point will not be able to be justified.

4) The surge initiative has to be given a clear chance to work. Hundreds of American soldiers and hundreds of Iraqis have already died implementing this initiative, many Iraqis have put themselves and their families well-being at risk supporting this surge strategy which the U.S. initiated and pushed through. If the U.S. government abandons this initiative before its been given a fair chance it would be an egregious and an unforgivable wrong. Until the end of September 2007 is a fair chance; it will be three months after all the reinforcement troops for the surge have been deployed in Iraq. The surge strategy will probably show the security problem in Iraq has been improved but is not solved to an acceptable level because the death and casualty rates in Iraq will probably still be at alarming levels. The rates will likely be from suicide bombers, car bombs, IEDs and EFPs, all terrorist types of violence. If this is the case then it will be clear that the U.S. military can’t solve Iraq’s security problems and it is time for the U.S. to leave Iraq. Only political solutions can stop such terrorist type of violence. At the end of 2006 when President Bush was soliciting input on what strategy to take on Iraq it was almost unanimous amongst members of Congress that the U.S. could not follow the strategy it was following with the alarming rates of violence existing in Iraq. Well if the rate of violence in Iraq at the end of September 2007 is still alarming, members of Congress can’t abandon these values they had pronounced earlier they have to support a new strategy and the only other viable strategy is to pull the U.S. troops out of Iraq and cause the Iraqi government to directly face and solve the political problems that are causing the violence. It also bears mentioning that the surge strategy’s tactics with their road blocks, home searches, etc., albeit necessary, are extremely burdensome on the Iraqi people and there is a limit to how much the Iraqi people can take without demanding it be stopped; this reality makes an assessment that the surge is not solving the security problem all the more persuasive that a new strategy in Iraq will be needed. By the end of September 2007 when it is clear the surge strategy is not the answer, Congressional leadership should have the votes necessary to override a Presidential veto on setting a U.S. troop withdrawal timetable. If funding for the troops in Iraq would run out by the end of September 2007 that would create invaluable momentum to bring about such withdrawal legislation. This is the case because the troops in the field (Iraq) would have to be funded, patriotism necessitates it, so a funding bill will have to be passed by Congress and members of Congress would have to publicly explain their vote on this bill and the vast majority of members of Congress are not going to want to support a bill that doesn’t contain a withdrawal timetable when the circumstances surrounding Iraq so compellingly call for such a timetable.

5) If Congresses passes new legislation mandating a withdrawal timetable for U.S. troops from Iraq and heavy violence still reigns in Iraq, they have to allow twelve (12) to eighteen (18) months to complete the withdrawal, we owe it to the Iraqi people. The U.S. egregiously mismanaged Iraq’s reconstruction and providing such a moderate time frame would help make amends. The Iraqi government is going to need this amount of time to increase the size of the Iraqi Security forces and have them implement a security plan to fill the vacuum left by the departing U.S. troops. The Iraqi government will need this time to likely move the central government out of Baghdad and to a southern Iraqi city that is more secure, if they stay in Baghdad they will be chopped to pieces by the different militant groups. An awful lot of Iraqis answered America’s call to help rebuild Iraq, they trusted us, many of them put their and their families lives and wealth on the line to do this, if we just leave Iraq at a rapid pace that will be a severe betrayal and unforgivable. An abundance of people throughout the world especially the Arab world will really resent and penalize America if we don’t give the Iraqis a moderate amount of time here. Moreover Congress owes it to the 3,300 Americans that loss their lives in Iraq and to the 12,000 Americans seriously wounded and their families to leave Iraq on a timetable that gives Iraq a fair chance to succeed.

6) American politicians will go to great efforts not to admit it but the presence of American troops in Iraq is a major cause of the security problem there. The Sunni insurgents as well as the major Shiite militia, the Mahdi army, publicly annunciate as their major goal driving the U.S. out of Iraq, al Qaeda has as their reason for being the destruction of America and our culture. We are foreigners in Iraq, no indigenous people like having a foreign army in their country. The U.S. presence in Iraq is fueling the extremely problematic interference of Iran and Syria in security matters in Iraq. When the U.S. armed forces leave Iraq, a major spot light will be focused on the al Qaeda terrorist organization in Iraq, the key perpetuators of the shocking violence, and they will be revealed for who they are people that don’t care about the Iraqi people, people that are using the Iraqi people to spread their regressive, anti-rights culture and the Iraqi people will be better positioned to give this group what they deserve, expulsion from Iraq.

All these listed factors have to lead responsible Americans to the conclusion that the right course for the American people to be taking at this time is to have the Congress pass a supplemental Iraq War funding bill that funds the war only through September 2007, probably something like two-thirds of the amount of money the White House wants, with no benchmarks with negative consequence conditions on the Iraq government. This will allow for funding of the U.S. troops in Iraq and their mission long enough to give the surge strategy a clear chance to work. The no benchmarks legislation will continue to keep the hope alive that Iraqi political leaders will work out the needed political solutions to resolve Iraq’s security problem. If by the end of September 2007 the surge strategy has not solved this Iraq security problem, Congress will be poised to do the only responsible thing in the next needed Supplemental Iraq War funding bill add a fair withdrawal timetable and most importantly pass such legislation by a presidential veto proof margin.