[Peace-discuss] Fwd: FCNL (12/12/03): Out of Iraq Quagmire

[Jay Mittenthal]

>Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 16:52:25 -0500 (EST)
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>Subject: FCNL (12/12/03): Out of Iraq Quagmire
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>12/12/03
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>OUT OF IRAQ QUAGMIRE: Over the past several weeks the Administration has 
>continued its pattern of missteps in regards to policy toward Iraq. 
>Intensified covert military operations have alienated more of the Iraqi 
>civilian population from U.S. occupiers, while yet another bungling of 
>diplomatic relations have made countries such as France, Germany, and 
>Russia once again reluctant to cooperate with U.S. calls for 
>assistance.  Over these next weeks it is crucial that Congress hear about 
>alternative policies that can change the course of reconstruction in Iraq.
>
>Please read and share FCNL's newly updated "War in Iraq: Finding a Way Out 
>of the Quagmire" with interested friends, family and colleagues.  Feel 
>free to share this document with your senators and representative as well, 
>and use its policy recommendations as talking points when you call or meet 
>with your members of Congress in their home districts this month. The full 
>document is included here, and is also available on our website at 
>http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=604&issue_id=35.
>We will continue to update it as events require.
>
>"War in Iraq: Finding a Way Out of the Quagmire"
>Friends Committee on National Legislation, December 10, 2003
>
>Successful resolution of the crisis in Iraq will be determined not by 
>swift timetables and U.S. exit strategies, but by the quality of future 
>peace, stability, and democracy in the country.  As the situation on the 
>ground deteriorates further, the Bush Administration is insisting that the 
>U.S. will not abandon its mission and will instead dig in harder and stay 
>the course.  However, ideological commitment to a failing strategy will 
>not help end the violence, stabilize the country, or chart a peaceful, 
>democratic future for the Iraqi people.  Rather, what is needed is a 
>significant change of course, away from U.S. military occupation and 
>war-fighting and toward international cooperation, the rule of law, and 
>self-determination by the Iraqi people.
>
>Attacks against U.S. troops now average 15 to 20 a day in Iraq.  Innocent 
>civilians are being killed in the crossfire, and Iraqis working with the 
>Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) are being targeted.  The U.S. and 
>coalition troops remains unable to provide basic public safety.  The UN, 
>International Red Cross, and other large humanitarian organizations have 
>withdrawn the majority of their international staff, citing increasing 
>attacks against them and an inability to carry out their humanitarian work 
>due to a lack of security.  According to a recent CIA report, frustration 
>within the Iraqi population at large appears to be rising.  Unemployment 
>remains alarmingly high.  Any potential political or economic 
>reconstruction is hampered by ongoing attacks from an increasingly 
>organized resistance and heightened U.S. military retaliation.  The 
>quagmire appears to be deepening.
>
>How can the U.S. find a way out of the quagmire without abandoning the 
>responsibility it has incurred to the Iraqi people by invading and 
>occupying the country?  The answer depends first and foremost on whether 
>the current situation in Iraq is treated as an ongoing war or a foreign 
>occupation of the country governed by international law.  The situation 
>may slide back into a state of belligerence, endangering Iraqis and U.S. 
>troops even further.  For the time being, however, the current state of 
>the country is being regarded as one of occupation by foreign powers.
>
>Given that status, we offer the following recommendations, to be 
>undertaken concurrently rather than sequentially wherever possible.
>
>1.  Admit Problems and Mistakes:  The Bush Administration should admit the 
>magnitude of problems in Iraq.  Viewing the rising violence and 
>instability through rose-colored glasses and glossing over the deaths of 
>U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians only contributes to prolonging a 
>manifestly failed policy.  The Administration should concede that mistakes 
>were made and that a new strategy is needed.
>
>2.  Apply Rule of Law, Not Law of Force: The U.S. is obliged by 
>international law to provide Iraqis physical security from violence, 
>whether from former regime supporters, foreign fighters, private militias, 
>individual criminals, or coalition forces.  However, responding to the 
>rising attacks against U.S., international, and Iraqi targets through 
>heightened military action - including air strikes, enclosing villages in 
>razor wire, razing buildings and orchards, and assassinating suspected 
>guerillas - will only escalate the violence, endanger additional civilian 
>lives, and increase discontent in the Iraqi population.  Instead, the U.S. 
>should seek a new UN resolution that puts any foreign security force 
>presence in Iraq under a UN mandate (but not necessarily a UN 
>force).  Training for new Iraqi security structures (police, army, border 
>guards and customs) should be placed under a UN mandate.  The U.S. should 
>work with new Iraqi police forces to identify and arrest those resp!
>  onsible for attacks, trying them through reconstituted Iraqi courts or 
> international courts of justice as soon as possible.
>
>3.  Seek Multilateral Assistance and Significant Participation:  The U.S. 
>should return to the UN Security Council to seek assistance from the 
>international community in devising a new strategy for establishing 
>security and moving forward on a legitimate process of political 
>transition and economic reconstruction.  While the Administration 
>continues to seek international assistance in Iraq, the White House 
>appears intent on retaining control of the military occupation and 
>political transition.  The UN, NATO, and many U.S. allies will not 
>contribute significant resources to help rebuild Iraq without a legitimate 
>international mandate.  Rather than insisting other countries sign up to a 
>failing U.S. occupation, the Administration should engage in serious 
>collaboration with international partners and the UN to design a viable 
>plan for restoring public safety and establishing a legitimate transfer of 
>power to a sovereign Iraq.
>
>4.  Support Democracy at the Local Level: Democracy is built from the 
>ground up; it cannot be imposed from above or outside.  Iraqis should be 
>given greater decision-making authority immediately, particularly with 
>regard to local policing and public safety, planning for a constitution 
>and elections, and economic reconstruction.   The recent policy change to 
>create a provisional government in Iraq and dissolve the Coalition 
>Provisional Authority by June 2004 is an important shift in the 
>Administration's approach to restoring Iraqi sovereignty.  However, if the 
>process is perceived as a U.S. handover of power to a hand-picked few, the 
>legitimacy of any provisional government and future elections will be 
>undermined.  Ultimately, the UN is better equipped to work with the Iraqi 
>people to design a process of national representation for an interim 
>government that would prepare for future elections, constitution-drafting, 
>and political transition.  Authority for facilitating a poli!
>  tical transition to a sovereign, independent Iraq should be turned over 
> to the UN, with the U.S. providing significant financial and other 
> non-military resources.  In the meantime, elections for town, village, 
> and neighborhood councils should be supported where they have not yet 
> taken place.  Local councils appointed by U.S. and coalition military 
> commanders should be replaced by popularly elected bodies.
>
>5.  Put Iraqis Back to Work:  The process of deep "de-Baathafication" went 
>too far.  The U.S. should immediately employ former professional Iraqi 
>civil servants, with pay, to help reopen Iraq's ministries and establish 
>and restore public services.  The U.S. should immediately remobilize 
>Iraq's army, up to the level of lieutenant colonel.  Iraqi troops could be 
>deployed to help in major reconstruction projects, to provide security for 
>humanitarian workers, and to find and secure lost or unaccounted for 
>munitions and arms caches.  All recalled civil and military employees 
>should be paid an adequate salary.
>
>6.  Stop War Profiteering:  The U.S. should ensure greater transparency in 
>the reconstruction process and give priority to Iraqi contractors, not 
>U.S. hand-picked firms.  The Coalition Provisional Authority should 
>cooperate fully with the newly constituted International Advisory and 
>Monitoring Board (IAMB).  The IAMB should be expanded to include broad 
>Iraqi representation.  In order to demonstrate clearly that the U.S. is 
>not pursuing its own economic or resource interests in Iraq, it should 
>turn the administration of Iraq's economic and financial recovery over to 
>the UN until a legitimate provisional government is in place.  Under UN 
>oversight, the U.S. should help jump-start the rebuilding of Iraq's 
>economic, social, health, educational, and physical infrastructure, while 
>encouraging micro-economic initiatives and Iraqi-led decision-making on 
>the country's economic future.  Iraqi businesses should receive priority 
>for reconstruction projects and local Iraqi labor should b!
>  e employed as much as possible.
>
>7.  Pursue Human Rights, Justice, and Reconciliation: The Coalition 
>Provisional Authority and Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) have proposed an 
>Iraqi war crimes tribunal to address the past crimes of Saddam Hussein's 
>regime and hold accountable those responsible for violations of human 
>rights by the regime.  The plan originally included no role for 
>international jurists or human rights experts and no role for the United 
>Nations (which has significant experience in international tribunals).  In 
>response to pressure from international human rights experts, a last 
>minute provision was included that will allow international legal experts 
>to serve as advisors to Iraqi judges, lawyers, and 
>investigators.  However, human rights experts have continued to express 
>concerns, noting that both the UN and the U.S. Justice Department issued 
>recent reports calling into question the competence and impartiality of 
>Iraq's judicial system.  Those responsible for crimes against humanity and 
>human r!
>  ights violations in Iraq, including officials of the former regime as 
> well as perpetrators of violations since the U.S.-led invasion and 
> occupation, should be held accountable.  A war crimes tribunal for Iraq 
> based on international law and with the support of the international 
> community could be an important mechanism for dealing with crimes of the 
> past and of the current war.  The current plan, however, designed and run 
> by the CPA and IGC, is dangerously flawed.  It does not follow 
> international or human rights standards for war crimes tribunals, and 
> threatens to deepen the cycle of violence in Iraq.  Instead, the UN 
> should be invited to work with the Iraqi people to design an 
> international tribunal to hear cases of alleged crimes against humanity, 
> genocide, and war crimes that will cover the full scope of conflict in 
> Iraq reaching back to 1980.  The UN could also be asked to work with 
> Iraqis to design a truth and reconciliation process, conducted by Iraqis 
> and assisted by!
>   people of high international stature and relevant international human
>
>also addresses the human toll of over a decade of economic sanctions, can 
>encourage healing and reconciliation.
>
>8.  Ensure Congressional Oversight:  Congress should insist on greater 
>oversight of the U.S. role in Iraq and investigate fully the 
>Administration's use of intelligence to make the case for war.  Thus far, 
>the Administration has requested and received from Congress close to $165 
>billion for operations in Iraq, with little accountability for how the 
>funds are being spent.  With so much invested, members of Congress must 
>provide careful oversight of the Administration's use of taxpayer dollars 
>and actively work to transform U.S. policy in Iraq.  Congress also has a 
>responsibility to hold the Administration accountable for its handling of 
>intelligence to make the case for war against Iraq.  Thus far, no evidence 
>has been found to substantiate Administration claims that Iraq's weapons 
>of mass destruction posed an imminent threat or that the regime had ties 
>to al Qaeda.  Congress should ensure a full investigation is made into the 
>White House's use of intelligence in attempting t!
>  o justify the need for war to Congress, the U.S. public, and the 
> international community.
>
>The steps outlined above would only be a beginning in a long process of 
>reestablishing security, rebuilding civil society, and supporting the 
>Iraqi people in their work to forge a stable future for their 
>country.  Ultimately, the people of Iraq must set the agenda and own the 
>process of nation-building.  As UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan recently 
>noted, "[T]he mounting insecurity problem [in Iraq] cannot be solved 
>through military means alone.  A political solution is required."  Until 
>significant steps are taken to seriously change U.S. policy, the current 
>quagmire will only deepen for Iraqis and for the U.S.
>--------------------------------------------
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