Washington's sensible opening should be nurtured, The Daily Star

Opinion, August 2003, www.aljazeerah.info

Washington's sensible opening should be nurtured

The Daily Star, 8/30/03

The signals from senior American military and civilian officials this week that Washington is moving toward accepting the idea of a multinational UN military force in Iraq that is headed by an American may be an important sign of a sensible evolution in US policy. The United States is learning the hard way that administering Iraq is not proving to be as easy as had been anticipated by the American neocons and other hawks who seem to have duped their president into launching the war to change the Iraqi regime and turn Iraq effectively into a temporary American protectorate.

Stubbornness and the giant ego factor in Washington are quickly giving way to a more flexible and sensible policy, even though American officials don’t always state it with great tact. The top American military commander for Iraq, General John Abizaid, said Thursday, for example, that “we’ve got to get more of an Iraqi face on the security establishment, and we need to have more international participation in the international coalition force.”
What he would term “getting more of an Iraqi face on the security establishment” is what most other people in the world who don’t engage in funny speak would call plain old “sovereignty.” The United States seems to be starting to appreciate that the current manner of administering occupied Iraq is not sustainable to the point where extremist ideological hawks like Richard Perle have admitted that mistakes were made in planning for the war, and policy adjustments are necessary.

Events in the center and south of the country especially suggest that even those Iraqis who were delighted to be liberated from the former Baathist regime would now like to be liberated from the Anglo-American armada. The nature and scope of attacks against occupation forces continue to increase and evolve, which should come as no surprise. The reactions that have been documented among Iraqis let alone the more organized and politicized anti-American fighters from Iraq and other lands indicate that the main problem for the Americans is simply that ordinary Iraqis do not like their country occupied and administered by foreigners from other continents.
Liberty, indeed, is indivisible. It is not simply putting an “Iraqi face” to the military management of the land; it is, rather, reinstating sovereign authority in the hands of the Iraqi people those who are chosen by the Iraqis themselves, rather than hand-picked by the US.

The indications of growing American acceptance of a multinational UN military force under US command could be a significant first step on a long journey toward return to normalcy in Iraq. The international community, especially the Arab world, should explore this opening carefully and seriously. We should all be motivated primarily by the best interests of the Iraqi people, ending the American-led occupation, and affirming the rule of law and national sovereignty. If Washington is coming to its senses and accepting realities that it once tried to ignore, the rest of the world should nurture this possible change of heart and prod it in the right direction all the way back to America’s shores, and far, far away from the vexing temptations of neocolonial empire, and neocon fantasies.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).