United Press International, HERZLIYA, Israel: A new and heated debate has broken out in the United States about future policy toward Iraq. As so often happens, this argument is being conducted along partisan lines and over theories and symbols rather than focusing on the actual problem, more related to Washington than to Baghdad.
Most Democrats press for a quick withdrawal, even demanding a timetable; most Republicans argue America must stay the course to prove U.S. credibility.
Democrats promoted the “great” idea of passing a congressional resolution to tell Iraqis to get their act together because the Americans will not be there forever. Talk about insensitivity! The Iraqis are doing most of the dying and almost all of the suffering. They don't want to be dependent on the Americans and know how serious is the situation and how much they need to develop strong military forces.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration tries to persuade everyone that things are going pretty well and that the insurgents are gradually losing ground. This is a dangerous line to take since it only takes one major insurgent attack to belie this claim.
How about actually considering the situation on the ground? Here in rather blunt terms are the central issues: First, as long as the United States is in Iraq it can neither win nor lose the war. There is no way the insurgents will defeat the American forces. Indeed, they cannot even expand their base of support. Those committing terrorism are Arab Sunni Muslims who want to regain their community's control over the country either by returning a Saddam-like regime or creating an Islamist-style one. The Kurds, Turcoman, and Shiite Muslim Arabs who comprise more than 80 percent of Iraqis are not going to join them.
By the same token, however, American troops cannot defeat the insurgents. No matter how many raids they stage there will always be more people ready to fight due to ideological fanaticism, financial gain, and sheer perception of Sunni self-interest. Moreover, the United States is not prepared to do what is necessary to root out this insurgency, which would involve such things as arresting thousands of people many of whom are innocent, ruthless interrogations, a certain amount of indiscriminate killing and flooding whole neighborhoods with masses of soldiers.
So what's a superpower to do? The alternatives its great political minds offer are either to cut and run or get trapped in a quagmire. Not much of a choice, is it?
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