The U.S. intelligence agencies have now officially recognized what every independent observer has long known: The war in Iraq is generating terrorist recruits across the world making us less safe, not more.
And Americans are now beginning to understand that incompetence, arrogance and internal division cripple this administration. The invasion and occupation of Iraq was the commitment that not only would determine the reputation of this administration, but would have fundamental impact on our own security and the conflict with al-Qaida.
Yet in that vital mission, the White House invaded without a plan for the occupation. It staffed the occupation with cronies and loyalists. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld scorned military advisors who said the occupation would require a bigger force than planned. “Stuff happens,” Rumsfeld said, dismissing the looting that marked the beginning of the fiasco.
To limit the forces there, the administration privatized. Halliburton and other crony companies hauled in literally billions in sole-source, no-bid, cost-plus contracts. The result, as depicted in an extraordinary documentary by Robert Greenwald called Iraq for Sale, was billions wasted and lives sacrificed.
Vice President Dick Cheney knows that none of this can ever be admitted. That’s why Rumsfeld is still on the job, despite a virtual revolt in the military, whose leaders he bullies. Cheney, according to the new insider account by Bob Woodward, opposed internal efforts to get rid of Rumsfeld, because any change would be an admission of doubt.
The conservative majority that controls both houses of Congress simply punted on its constitutional duty to hold the administration accountable. Americans do not want to admit that the sacrifice of $300 billion and the lives of nearly 3,000 U.S. soldiers, with 10 times as many wounded, was in vain.
The president says “stay the course.” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says we might be there a decade or longer. And the Pentagon is building permanent bases in Iraq.
Democrats oppose this course but struggle to offer an alternative. Without a president in office, they speak with many voices (even with a Democratic president in office, they speak with many voices). But as the House debate made clear, even the most conservative, pro-military legislators – like Jack Murtha and Ike Skelton – now support changing course.
There is one thing on which a broad majority of Iraqis, according to a recent State Department poll, and a majority of U.S. soldiers agree: the US should begin bringing its troops home. Iraq is now in the midst of a civil war and our soldiers have no business in that conflict. The Shiites are consolidating their hold on the south, with religious zealots beginning to curtail women’s rights and enforce religious law. The Kurdish nationalists have taken hold of what they call Kurdistan in the north, now outlawing the display of the Iraq flag. Even the so-called unity government has signed a mutual defense pact with the Iranian regime that the administration calls part of the “Axis of Evil.”
The crowd that got us into this mess is not capable of getting us out. It is time for a change.