The U.S. should resist saying 'mission accomplished' in Iraq

[TexasLawyer]

Another informative editorial from the Daily Star (Lebanon)

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=12334

The U.S. should resist saying 'mission accomplished' in Iraq

By David Ignatius
Special to The Daily Star
Thursday, February 03, 2005


Think of Sunday's election in Iraq as the starting point. It was the democratic revolution the Iraqi people never had as they watched U.S. troops sweep to Baghdad and then occupy their country. It was the moment in which individual Iraqi citizens, by risking their lives to cast their votes, finally began to make their own history.

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So the new government's first challenge will be to reach out to the nonvoters. Alkadiri quotes Winston Churchill's famous formula: "Magnanimous in victory." The dominant force seems to be the United Iraqi Alliance, which was blessed by Shiite Ayatollah Ali Sistani. If its Shiite leaders can reassure Iraqi Sunnis and other minorities that they will be equal citizens in the new Iraq, they can form a stable government that, over time, will defeat the insurgency. But if the Shiite politicians engage in sectarian politics and efforts to settle old scores, they will fail.


A key figure will be the wily former exile leader Ahmed Chalabi, who took cover under the Sistani umbrella last year. Bush administration officials are said to be worried by reports that the De-Baathification Committee, which Chalabi heads, has drawn up a list of 200 election candidates who should be denied a role in the new government, including several prominent allies of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Perpetuation of those old feuds is the last thing a new Iraq needs.

The other big challenge for the new Iraqi government will be dealing with the United States. The polarity is now reversed: Now it's up to the Iraqis to shape the relationship. The right answer for both sides is a gradual process of U.S. military disengagement - in which the number of U.S. troops declines as Iraq's security forces increase in numbers and confidence. It's a delicate balance: Most Iraqis want the U.S. occupation to end, but they also fear the chaos that will erupt if American troops leave too quickly.

Mowaffak Rubaie, the current Iraqi national security adviser and a likely member of the new government because of his close relations with Sistani, told me last weekend that Iraq won't ask U.S. troops to leave until next year at the earliest. Pressure will grow for the Iraqis to negotiate a timetable for U.S. withdrawal. But it can be blunted if the Bush administration continues with its emerging strategy of shifting its military role to training the Iraqi Army, conducting joint special-forces operations against the insurgents, and turning over daily security chores to Iraqi forces wherever possible.

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