Los Angeles Times
October 5, 2004
President Bush and interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi do their best to paint
Iraq as a land of blue skies and sunshine, and never mind the beheadings,
kidnappings, oil pipeline explosions and suicide car bomb attacks that kill
dozens of Iraqis and foreigners at a time. The newly emphasized goals of the
invasion, once the weapons of mass destruction turned out not to exist, included
implanting democracy in the "Greater Middle East," starting with Baghdad, and
creating an economy more capitalistic than socialistic. But there are
indications the Bush administration is belatedly waking up to reality.
Bush doesn't admit the goals have changed, but some of his top advisors do.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told Congress recently that Iraq had never
been peaceful and perfect and it wasn't likely to get there. National security
advisor Condoleezza Rice last month said the administration would settle for an
elected Iraqi government that could defend itself. Those are welcome pullbacks
from the overly op timistic visions that Washington proclaimed soon after the
initial military success.
Bush continues to stress the goal of a "free
and peaceful Iraq," hardly an objective anyone can quarrel with. In January,
Vice President Dick Cheney called for "promoting democracy throughout the
Greater Middle East and beyond." Again, a worthy pursuit, but now swamped by
Iraq's rising violence.
The Center for Strategic and International
Studies said in a report last month, based on extensive interviews and research
in Iraq, that after decades of rule by Saddam Hussein, wars and U.N. sanctions,
Iraqis did not expect much after last year's invasion. That's about what
they've received: not much. Hussein is gone, but many can't leave their homes
without fearing criminals motivated by money or revenge — or hatred for
those helping the occupying forces. Yet the center also found Iraqis felt that
because of its wealth, the U.S. would improve their country greatly; that
hasn't happened.
Congress approve d a stunning $18-billion aid package
to rebuild Iraq, yet only $1 billion of that has been spent, and more than $3
billion will be diverted to security following a realistic assessment that
insurgents must be defeated or they will tear down whatever is built and kill
those doing the reconstruction.
Iraq would benefit from stability and
democracy. But to get there, the U.S. has to get more Iraqis into jobs —
police, truck drivers, teachers, oil field workers — to let them feed
their families and deprive the guerrillas of support. The Center for Strategic
and International Studies has suggested what needs to be done: decentralize
government, protect the country's judges and lawyers, get more international
help, provide more direct assistance to Iraqis. It is one of several groups
that warned before the war of what could go wrong. The administration ignored
those warnings; it should listen now.