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FINANCIAL TIMES: STINGING REBUKE OF WHITE HOUSE "BUMPER STICKER" POLITICS ON IRAQ

by The Anglo American | September 16, 2007 at 03:15 pm

444 views | 6 Recommendations | 5 comments

The Financial Times has launched a stinging rebuke over White House tactics over the apparent success of General Petraeus' Congressional testimony. The conservative but independent thinking British newspaper is equally scathing over statements made by Ryan Crocker, Washington's Ambassador in Iraq.
To observe The Financial Times copyright terms, it is not possible to copy the whole article on NowPublic but if you are interested I will email you {up to 20people} the full article should you wish to see it. Just drop me a line. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />{The Anglo American}

President George W. Bush’s attempt to subcontract Iraq policy and to trade on Gen Petraeus’s credibility in Washington – while compromising the general, politicising the army and eroding the constitution – may have bought him a bit more time for a doomed strategy.

The FT criticises the incremental improvements suggested by these two men.

The fall in Iraqi casualty figures, for example, is not what it seems. Comparing the situation now with the bloodiest period of last year – at the height of ethno-sectarian cleansing that in some areas is now complete – is misleading. The Iraqi interior ministry’s manipulation of the number of dead, reported by some US papers as three times the stated figures for August, is mendacious.

{Mendacious, in my dictionary, means not truthful.}

The FT goes on to question the acclaimed achievements in the Sunni Tribal war against al queda, which began long before the "surge". That the Mahdi Army, standing down, is more to do with Iranians being fed up with internal Shia feuding than any US "surge". But where the "surge" has succeded the FT belives a permanent presence of US foces is required, to cement that success. Petreus must be going against his military instincts...

"But Mr Bush has gratefully accepted Gen Petraeus’s recommendations for scaled troop withdrawals."

"Yet, if the neat and linear diagram of force reductions the general presented to Congress has anything to do with reality, it is not the reality of Iraq. “Return on Success” is bumper-sticker politics, not policy."

The FT concludes with a political solution.....

Iraq’s elite and politico-military forces need to be given a reasonable but limited time to reach a modus vivendi before US troops withdraw. During that time, Americans, Europeans and Arabs need to forge a compact among all Iraq’s neighbours, including Iran, on stabilising Iraq and regional security. Time to unleash a politico-diplomatic surge.

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PEP

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 16:14 on September 16th, 2007

The Anglo American, good stuff, very well done and a way to handle some of the harder things in working with highlights and posting.

SthPacific

at 01:29 on September 17th, 2007

Thanks for Flagging this one PEP, it needed the attention given by the editors. Perhaps you could expand on this at another time. I cant tick your comment as good stuff but I would if I could :)