Spotlight on Middle East
Iraqis rise up against the Coalition
Muslehuddin Ahmad
Bush Administration in collaboration with Blair government invaded Iraq a year ago on the assumption that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and had connection with Al-Qaeda which allegedly carried out the bombing of the World Trade Centre, NY. Reportedly, in the breakfast meeting with Prime Minister Blair in Camp David President Bush proposed attacking Iraq to get rid of Saddam Hussein. President Bush reportedly told Bob Woodward that he had already planned to attack Iraq and he made the plan two months after Afghanistan attack. Bush did not divulge this to Blair when he made the proposal. Probably he did not find it necessary either. It was the plan of the most powerful man on earth and he knew Blair would go by whatever he would say. Among other things including WMD, Bush said 'the guy wanted to kill my dad'. Apparently, Blair was not comfortable with the idea as he was not sure at that time, about the WMD's existence in Iraq, but he had to tentatively agree to support Bush because of Britain's special relationship with the US. Then the basis for the attack had to be created and that led to the manufacture of faulty and indeed wrong intelligence reports. The story is well known. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in her testimony to the 9/11 Commission talked about the "structural problems" in intelligence gathering and reporting which appears to be valid, but frequent visits by Vice President Dick Cheney to the CIA HQ and his alleged contributions towards some form of manipulation of such reports to build up a case for attacking Iraq did not come up.Now the new facts are coming out through the intensive interrogations by the very competent bi-partisan 9/11 Commission and declassification of August 6 PDB. Bush administration appeared to have ignored the warnings of the CIA and FBI on possible hijackings by Al-Qaeda by saying that the warnings were not specific. Here also Bush administration may be given the benefit of doubt but it could not de denied that Bush administration was predetermined and therefore more focused on Iraq than on Al-Qaeda attack. This appears to be for the reason that Bush administration was being pushed by Israel by its biased and indeed deliberate intelligence reports geared to immediate removal of Saddam. Similar reports were also provided by expatriate Iraqis who had fled Iraq and wanted the removal of Saddam so that they could go back and form a government. Their plan worked well as Saddam was removed and indeed some of them did go back and became members of the Iraqi Provisional authority. But all these happened at the peril of Americans themselves. But as the situation stands today, not only the Americans, none is safe in Iraq. One may go to the extent of saying that the world stands upside down today in terms of terrorism; nobody is safe in this world. This seems to be the major contribution of President Bush in the world security system. One could see the bombings in Spain which indeed changed the regime there. The general view is that the regime change in Spain was the result of Al-Qaeda's action. The process may continue and bring regime changes elsewhere including the USA, Britain, Italy, Japan and all other countries which are involved with Bush's Coalition (the people tend to term it Bush's Coalition and not American Coalition as many Americans were against the war and Bush got approval of the Congress by providing 'false information' -- John Kerry already said that 'President misled the American people). Today Bush Administration is in deep trouble in Iraq. During the 15 days of April, 73 American soldiers were killed in Iraq and the process started with the lynching of 4 American civilians, which was terribly ghastly and the world condemned such an ugly inhuman act. Sunni triangle and particularly Fallujah was the real trouble spot for the Americans. But unfortunately this has spread over to the Shia group too as one of the Shia radical Muqtada Al-Sadr and his militia have now been fighting the Coalition forces. The American forces are now being attacked by both Shia and Sunni groups. American forces undoubtedly used very heavy handed methods in Fallujah and places around Baghdad. The available figures of Iraqi death because of American offensive appear to be around 600 and thousands injured. The media report said that Fallujah was turned into Jenin of Palestine (West Bank) because of heavy bombing and disproportionate use of force by the US troops, which of course the US command denied formally. During that time, an Apache helicopter was also downed by Iraqi fighters and two of the pilots were killed. Apart from their fight on the ground and air, Iraqi fighters have already started taking hostages. Some 30 hostages of various nationalities including Americans, Chinese etc are already in the Iraqi hands. Luckily due to the intervention of some Sunni clerics Japanese, Russian and British hostages have been released. This hostage crisis has created turmoil in Japan and Japanese Prime Minister has lost a lot of political ground because of his support for President Bush. Russia has already withdrawn its people from Iraq. Latest reports show that Americans were forced to go for a unilateral cease-fire as the situation went practically out of control. Now the American forces are reportedly asking for further build up and consequently asked for more troops let alone sending some back home. However, the cease-fire was still holding and negotiations have been going on between the Iraqi fighters including Al-Sadr militia group and the Provisional Council members for some sort of solution in the area. But the negotiations may fail any moment and fighting may erupt. Now the only danger is that if the American forces continue to kill the Al-Sadr militia members who are Shias, the entire Shia community may go for armed uprising. That would be too dangerous for the Coalition forces. The Iraqis are not likely to stop fighting till the US led forces have left Iraq. The world and particularly the region would be better off if Bush Administration understands this before it is too late and decides to hand over Iraq completely to the UN. This will be the 'internationalisation of the Iraq problem' which John Kerry asked for. Half cooked proposals that UN representative Brahimi put forward may not work. The issue is occupation and the presence of occupying forces, which must end. The UN must take over. If the UN formally takes over, the issue of sovereignty will not pose any problem. It is necessary that the US and its Coalition forces get out of Iraq soon. This seems to be the intention of President Bush too as he remained firm on transferring power to Iraqi Governing Council on June 30. This is undoubtedly his election strategy and this is certainly the right decision. But this has to be done in an acceptable way. The only acceptable way should be the UN and not US handpicked Iraqi Governing Council. This Council represents none but themselves. Let there be a UNSC resolution as proposed by Britain on "Central" role of the UN. This seems to be agreement in Bush- Blair's recent summit too. The key factor is that the Coalition forces must withdraw within some agreed number of days and thereafter the UN peace keepers should start taking over. The peace keepers would, for obvious reasons, have to be drawn from the friendly Arab and Muslim countries. The announcement itself would calm down the Iraqi fighters and the present crises would be nearly over. This would be good for both America and the region itself. The take-over by the UN would indeed be in line with President Bush's own strategy. The only change required is the transfer of power to the UN instead of the Iraqi Provisional Council. Thereafter, let the UN work out its own plan for election in Iraq and handing over the power formally to the elected Iraqi government. And here the proposals of Brahimi would be useful. This certainly will install democracy which seems to be one of the goals of the US in the region, apart from its oil interest. Muslehuddin Ahmad is a former Secretary and Ambassador. Presently he is the Vice Chancellor of Presidency University.
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