Misreading Iraq, Again

[Guest Gandalf Grey]

Misreading Iraq, Again

 

By Robert Parry

Created Jul 14 2007 - 10:29am

 

George W. Bush and his neoconservative supporters are hailing some signs of

cooperation between Iraqi Sunni tribal leaders and U.S. forces in rooting

out al-Qaeda extremists in Anbar Province as proof that Bush's military

occupation of Iraq is finally working and should not be ended by Congress.

 

"Finally," wrote neoconservative Washington Post columnist Charles

Krauthammer on July 13, "after four terribly long years, we know what

works." He, like Bush, cited the Anbar example as reason to reject growing

public and congressional demands for a prompt U.S. military withdrawal from

Iraq.

 

But the Anbar evidence could be read almost exactly the opposite way: that

it is the growing belief among Sunnis that the American occupation is

nearing its end that has caused some of them to view the U.S. military as a

lesser evil and position themselves for what they perceive as the next phase

of the conflict.

 

Anticipating a U.S. departure, these Sunnis are now more concerned about

defending Sunni territory against the Shiite-dominated government army as

well as eradicating al-Qaeda extremists whose indiscriminate killings have

offended Iraqis of all stripes.

 

In other words, believing that the U.S. public and Congress will force

Bush's

hand on military withdrawal, these Sunnis see the need to secure American

armaments to match up against their Shiite rivals (if an intensified civil

war should ensue), and they see the hyper-violent foreign jihadists as a

threat to the province's traditional Sunni power structure.

 

From this angle, the Anbar developments underscore why it's a good idea for

the U.S. government to make clear its intention to leave Iraq, not what Bush

and neocons see, another reason to extend the occupation indefinitely.

 

Indeed, this apparent shift in Sunni interests has long been anticipated by

Iraq War critics if the U.S. occupation were to end. They have cited

evidence that what al-Qaeda feared most in Iraq was a U.S. military

withdrawal that would eliminate its most valuable recruitment pitch (Bush's

occupation of Arab land) and diminish any value al-Qaeda fighters might have

for Iraqi Sunnis.

 

This al-Qaeda fear was expressed by the group's leaders, holed up along the

Pakistani-Afghan border, in letters to Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab

al-Zarqawi. The letters warned that al-Qaeda's position in Iraq might

collapse if the United States left, removing the glue holding together the

fragile coalition between foreign jihadists and Iraqi nationalists.

 

That was why a July 2005 letter attributed to al-Qaeda's second-in-command

Ayman al-Zawahiri urged Zarqawi to start talking up the idea of an Islamic

"caliphate," so the young jihadists, drawn to Iraq to fight the Americans,

wouldn't just "lay down their weapons and silence the fighting zeal" once

the Americans departed.

 

The "Zawahiri letter," which was intercepted by U.S. intelligence, also

predicted that an American departure would force the depleted force of

al-Qaeda fighters into a desperate battle simply to carve out an enclave

inside Iraq.

 

In December 2005 letter, another top aide to Osama bin Laden, known as

"Atiyah," lectured Zarqawi on the need to act more respectfully toward Iraqi

Sunni leaders so al-Qaeda could begin addressing its need to put down deeper

roots in Iraq.

 

In pursuit of that goal, Atiyah also saw the importance of keeping the U.S.

forces bogged down in Iraq. "Prolonging the war is in our interest," Atiyah

wrote in a letter that was discovered by U.S. forces after Zarqawi's death

in June 2006. [see Consortiumnews.com's "Al-Qaeda's Fragile Foothold [1]."]

 

False Hope

 

But Bush and his neocon backers - in a pattern that has been repeated since

the U.S. invasion in March 2003 - are interpreting the modest inroads that

U.S. commanders have made with Sunni leaders in Anbar and, to a lesser

extent, Diyala Province as a reason to continue the U.S. occupation

indefinitely.

 

From the beginning of the war, every time a silver lining could be spotted

in an otherwise dark cloud, Bush and the neocons have exploited the

development for maximum political advantage back in Washington and as

justification to extend the war in Iraq.

 

So, when Saddam Hussein's Baghdad statue was pulled down in April 2003, that

was cited as proof the Iraqis favored the U.S. military presence; when

Hussein's two sons were killed and the dictator was captured, the U.S.

mission creep edged further toward an ambitious nation-building project;

when millions of Shiites turned out for elections, that was seen as another

endorsement of the U.S. military presence rather than a self-interested move

to consolidate Shiite power over the Sunnis.

 

At each juncture, Bush could have cited the positive development as the

moment for the United States to start heading home. Instead, Bush seized on

these "turning points" to berate his domestic critics and to dig the United

States more deeply into Iraq.

 

Though Bush's analyses turned out wrong, he continues to view Iraq through

rose-colored glasses of false hope. Even the new signs of "success" in Anbar

could dissipate overnight if the Sunnis conclude that Bush will succeed in

sustaining U.S. military domination over Iraq for the foreseeable future.

 

Then, the military supplies and other help that U.S. forces are giving to

Sunni tribal leaders - to secure their cooperation against al-Qaeda - could

be turned against American troops. An open-ended U.S. occupation also would

give another boost to al-Qaeda, buying the terrorist group more time to

rebuild its global capabilities.

 

Despite President Bush's insistence that prolonging the Iraq War means that

the terrorists can't "follow us home," Secretary for Homeland Security

Michael Chertoff has declared that he has a "gut feeling" that al-Qaeda is

about to do just that, strike again in the United States.

 

Behind Chertoff's remark was a new five-page U.S. intelligence report,

entitled "Al-Qaeda Better Positioned to Strike the West." According to this

CIA threat assessment, al-Qaeda has succeeded in establishing a safe haven

inside Pakistan and rebuilding its ability to attack Western and U.S.

targets.

 

"We see more training; we see more money; we see more communications," the

CIA's deputy director for intelligence, John A. Kringen, told a House

committee on July 11. [Washington Post, July 12, 2007]

 

The CIA's assessment means that almost six years after the 9/11 attacks,

Bush's "war on terror" strategy has not only failed to neutralize al-Qaeda

but has enabled the terrorist organization to rebound.

 

Besides his failure to cut off bin Laden's escape routes from Tora Bora in

December 2001, Bush opened the door to al-Qaeda's recovery by shifting the

focus of the U.S. military away from al-Qaeda's bases near the

Pakistani-Afghan border to Iraq.

 

Then, by invading Iraq in March 2003, Bush made himself al-Qaeda's poster

boy for rallying a new generation of angry Muslims to the banner of Islamic

extremism. And, over the past four-plus years, Bush has made the bloody U.S.

occupation of Iraq a gift to al-Qaeda that keeps on giving.

 

In short, another Bush triumph over his Iraq War critics in Congress could

well represent an even bigger victory for al-Qaeda.

_______

 

 

 

About author Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s

for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Secrecy & Privilege:

Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at

secrecyandprivilege.com [2]. It's also available at Amazon.com [3], as is

his 1999 book, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth.'

Robert Parry's web site is Consortium News [4]

 

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"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their

spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their

government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are

suffering deeply in spirit,

and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public

debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have

patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning

back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at

stake."

-Thomas Jefferson