Iraq—It’s Not Working

Iraq—It’s Not Working

October 6, 2006

"Wearing a helmet and a flak jacket and flanked by machine-gun-toting bodyguards to defend against insurgents," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit to Baghdad yesterday where "signs of progress were not much in evidence in the first hours of her visit." Her trip "began inauspiciously when the military transport plane that brought her to Baghdad was forced to circle the city for about 40 minutes because of what a State Department spokesman later said was either mortar fire or rockets at the airport. The visit capped off a bad month for the administration. The release of a damaging National Intelligence Estimate, the publicity surrounding Bob Woodward's book, "State of Denial," and weeks of record violence have further decreased the American public's confidence in the administration's "stay the course" Iraq policy. 61 percent of Americans oppose the war, matching a high point set in August. 66 percent disapprove of Bush's handling of Iraq, and 57 percent say operations in Iraq have made us less safe from terrorism. It's time to change the course.

• The violence in Iraq has reached an all-time high. "This has been a hard week for U.S. forces," Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said recently. "Unfortunately, as expected, attacks have steadily increased in Baghdad during these past weeks." "Seventy-four soldiers and Marines were killed in Iraq in September, representing the highest monthly toll" since last April. On Monday, eight soldiers died in Baghdad, "the most killed in a single day in the capital since July 2005." The number of planted bombs is "at an all-time high," "defying American efforts to stanch the vicious sectarian bloodshed in Baghdad that threatens to plunge the country into civil war." In August, 3,000 Iraqi civilians died violently, up from 2,000 a year ago.
  

• More conservatives are questioning the execution of the war. "What the American people see on their television screens is the struggle," Rice said yesterday, adding that the Iraqis are "making progress." Conservatives are openly questioning the administration's "sugarcoated" version of reality. Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John Warner "offered a stark assessment" of Iraq after his visit there last week. Warner said the situation is "drifting sideways" and several parts of Iraq have taken "steps backwards." "In two or three months if this thing hasn’t come to fruition and this level of violence is not under control," Warner said, "I think it’s a responsibility of our government to determine: Is there a change of course we should take?" He added, "[I] wouldn't take off the table any option at this time."
  
  

• The administration is determined to “stay the course” in Iraq. The administration is unlikely to alter their "stay the course" strategy. Bush and Cheney are taking advice from former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who views the Iraq war "through the prism of the Vietnam War" and believes the "overriding lesson of Vietnam is to stick it out." Kissinger reportedly passed around a memo he wrote in 1969 to give the administration a sense of where he stands on Iraq. "Withdrawal of U.S. troops will become like salted peanuts to the American public," the memo warns, "the more U.S. troops come home, the more will be demanded." However, as Colin Powell recently said, "Only the Iraqi people can resolve this.” In Iraq, "staying the course isn't good enough because a course has to have an end."