Medea Benjamin interview: Peace is Possible in Iraq

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0112-23.htm

Peace is Possible in Iraq
by Lisa Farino and Medea Benjamin

snip//

Lisa: What were some of the main things you learned from the Iraqis during these discussions?

Medea: We learned that there were major differences among the different groups but also some major commonalities. The biggest commonality is that they were all anxious to find a way for the U.S. troops to leave. Some of them said they should have been gone yesterday and tomorrow wouldn't be soon enough, and some thought that their departure had to be part of a slower, broader peace process so that things would not get worse. It was very interesting for me to learn that some Iraqis felt that the presence of the US troops was the only ace they had to negotiate with the United States for things like money for rebuilding their country because as soon as the troops left, they felt the U.S. would wash its hands of its financial responsibilities. And so they wanted the troops to stay while an agreement was worked out with the United States around its obligations. So there was a variety of opinions about when and how U.S. troops should leave, but all Iraqis we met with not only wanted all the foreign troops to leave but also wanted a fixed timetable for that process to happen.

They also told us that many Iraqis have been working seriously on a peace and reconciliation process since November, 2005, when they had their first reconciliation meeting in Cairo. This was underreported in the U.S. press, but it's very important to understand that the Iraqis are not sitting around waiting for the U.S. to end the violence. They are meeting intensely to come up with their own peace plan. But a precondition of that peace plan is setting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. In the U.S., we are hearing a lot of blame being put on the Iraqis themselves—“they're not stepping forward to fix their own country”, “we're doing our part but they're not doing theirs.” That is just such garbage. Iraqis have been actively trying to stop the sectarian violence and end the occupation, but their efforts are being thwarted by the Bush administration.

Lisa: How have they been thwarted by the Bush administration?

Medea: The Iraqis we met with reported that the efforts to come up with a peace plan between the different Iraqi groups had been bearing fruit. Several plans had been proposed, including the 28-point plan that had been hashed out by different groups, including seven different insurgent groups. But when the prime minister was ready to publicly announce the plan, the Bush administration stepped in and said, “No, wait. There are certain elements of this plan that we're not going to allow to move forward.” And those were some of the most important elements of the plan.

snip//

Lisa: Was there anything about the meeting that really surprised you?

Medea: It surprised me that not only the Sunnis, but even representatives of Shi'a who were being attacked by the Sunnis, recognized that Iraqis have the right to fight against foreign occupation. They thought it was legitimate to fight foreign soldiers, and some even agreed that it was legitimate to target U.S. contractors as well as Iraqi soldiers and police who collaborated with the foreign occupiers. But both groups made a clear distinction between legitimate armed resistance and terrorism. Terrorists attack civilians, they said, and they blamed foreign Al Qaeda jihadists for attacks on civilians. They also blamed the US military for attacks on civilians, which they said was a regular occurrence.

What also surprised me is that the Sunni representatives said that if the U.S. set a timetable for the withdrawal of its troops, they were sure many of the Sunni-based insurgent groups would not only stop fighting the U.S., but would join with the U.S.-trained Iraqi forces to drive Al-Qaeda and the jihadists out of Iraq.

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[applegrove]

1. Thanks for posting. K&R