Iraq One Year Later
Iraq One Year Later A year has passed since the invasion of Iraq, and while no sensible person would claim that Iraqis are safely and irrevocably on a course to liberal democracy, the honest and...
...But the United States was right to join the unanimous vote...
...But the idea that the carnage of March 11 can by any stretch of the imagination be called a "Spanish problem" strikes us as false...
...But guess what...
...He has not decreased troops in an election year...
...Losing the peace in Iraq is not about terror alone...
...I think I was prescient...
...John Kerry—the man who now warns President Bush against cutting and running in Iraq—failed the test...
...Those Democrats who held their noses and voted for the $87 billion did so because they believed it vitally important to do something to aid the reconstruction of Iraq, and as quickly as possible...
...As Biden put it, "for all the errors of the past, we must confront the reality of the present and the imperative of the future...
...Outgoing Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar made the decision to back the United States in its war on terror, not just in Afghanistan but also in Iraq...
...He has of course consistently represented the interests of the long-oppressed Shiite majority...
...Security Council resolution condemning ETA in the aftermath of the bombings risks looking premature, should ETA turn out not to have been involved...
...No European who mourned New York's dead after September 11—nor any grateful American—will need to be reminded that Spain deserves the special solicitude of its allies in the moment of its loss and disruption...
...If, for instance, terrorists with previously local grievances are learning logistical lessons from al Qaeda's large-scale simultaneous bombings, that is our problem, too...
...It would confirm the concerns of many moderate Arab regimes expressed before we went to war with Iraq that we would not finish the job...
...The U.N...
...I think I showed leadership.'' We don't think so, and we wish the Democratic party had chosen someone with a better understanding of leadership...
...Even though it was apparent by early summer 2003 that there were too few troops to provide security for the reconstruction effort, the administration remained committed to drawing down the number of forces...
...The bill," he said in December, is "too large...
...We may have turned a corner in terms of security...
...Kerry was pleased to report he had received an ovation at a Democratic rally when he spoke of his vote against the $87 billion...
...Biden, who surely liked his own proposal as much as Kerry did, voted for the $87 billion anyway...
...Robert Kagan and William Kristol From 9/11 to 3/11 For the first time since September 11, 2001, terrorists have struck the West in a spectacular way, murdering (at last count) 199 innocents and injuring a thousand others with a dozen bombs planted in Madrid's commuter-rail system at rush hour, three days before national elections...
...And, of course, in classic Kerry fashion, he has also warned the Bush administration against pursuing a "cut and run strategy...
...This does not seem to be a Muslim theocracy in the making...
...In the face of significant political resistance, he reached the assessment that seems to us the correct one: September 11 was Spain's September 11...
...The signing on March 8 of the Iraqi interim constitution—containing the strongest guarantees of individual, minority, and women's rights and liberties to be found anywhere in the Arab world—is the most obvious success...
...Islam is respected in the constitution as the national religion...
...Our credibility in Iraq and the region and across the globe will be at rock bottom if we do not successfully secure the peace...
...At this writing, it is unclear whether the bombing was perpetrated by al Qaeda (as the simultaneity, the discovery of detonators and Arabic tapes at the trains' point of departure, and a questionable claim of credit posted to a London newspaper would indicate) or by the Basque terrorist group ETA (as earlier election-season threats at first led Spaniards to believe), or by some combination of the two...
...In a statement explaining his vote, Kerry also complained that a proposal he co-sponsored with Senator Joseph Biden to repeal part of Bush's tax cut to pay for Iraq had been defeated...
...Now they have changed course and agree that real elections are both simpler and far preferable in conferring legitimacy on any Iraqi government or final constitution...
...The capture of Saddam Hussein has damaged the Baathist-led insurgency, although jihadists continue to launch horrific attacks on Iraqi civilians...
...The administration's about-face on elections is one of several instances over the past year where American officials have had to recover from misjudgments about the reconstruction of Iraq...
...Electricity and oil production in Iraq have returned to prewar levels...
...That is the key to success in Iraq...
...This administration did not do a particularly good job of preparing for postwar Iraq before the invasion, and it has not always made the right decisions on how to proceed politically, diplomatically, and militarily in the reconstruction of Iraq...
...But now that Kerry is the nominee, we trust that serious Democrats will do their best to see to it that their candidate expresses a commitment like the president's to finishing the task in Iraq...
...But the president has proven remarkably stubborn on the question of Iraq...
...The interim constitution itself represents a promising compromise between the legitimate desire of the majority Shiites to be fairly represented in the Iraqi government—for the first time in a century—and the equally legitimate desire of Kurds and Sunnis to be protected from a tyranny of the majority...
...But the mere fact that the White House has not sought an early exit timed to our presidential election has made it possible to recover from these mistakes—many of which, to be fair, are unavoidable in a complex undertaking like nation-building...
...America and Americans will be far less secure to boot...
...But the difficult negotiations leading up to the signing, and the continuing debates over the terms of a final constitution, have in fact demonstrated something remarkable in Iraq: a willingness on the part of the diverse ethnic and religious groups to disagree—peacefully—and then to compromise...
...The first and most serious misjudg-ment concerned the level of American troops...
...In fact, he has done nothing in Iraq to strengthen his political prospects at home, except perhaps to realize the deeper truth that he is better off in November if Iraq is better off, no matter how many American troops remain...
...Turkey, an Islamic government, seeing a failed state on their border, becomes more radicalized...
...It is the problem of all the civilized world's democratic republics and constitutional monarchies...
...They know better than that," McCain chided...
...Indeed, the way in which the Iraqi constitution reconciles liberal democracy with the culture and religion of Islam really is an encouraging and feasible model for others in the Islamic world...
...This is a far cry from the predictions made before the war by many, both here and in Europe, that a liberated Iraq would fracture into feuding clans and unleash a bloodbath...
...These are never easy matters to resolve, as our own Founders knew well...
...But the meaning of the attack does not depend on the identity— that is, the particular psychopathology—of the killers behind it...
...But that does not impinge on the basic rights of Iraqis, both Muslim and non-Muslim...
...On this question, at least, there should be no doubt that the president has so far put the national interest above political expediency...
...And so did 38 other Democratic senators, including Tom Daschle, Hillary Clinton, Christopher Dodd, and Barbara Mikulski...
...Kerry may know better, but McCain was right about Kerry's political calculations...
...The first reaction of the civilized world should be to remember and mourn the dead, with mourning understood to include bringing to justice the barbarians who killed them...
...We dare say some of them may have felt as strongly as Kerry about the inadequacies of administration policy...
...Real and important progress has been made in this momentous, and at times trying, year...
...And some of those who voted for the $87 billion had even voted against the Iraq war in 2002—unlike, say, Kerry, who managed to vote for the invasion of Iraq one year and against the costs of staying the course the next...
...A share of the credit for Iraq's achievements so far should go to the leading Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Sis-tani...
...Add to these problems the vexing question of the role of Islam in Iraqi politics and society, and the complexities multiply...
...For this we believe President Bush deserves enormous credit, and perhaps sole credit...
...It confronts the United States with similarly solemn obligations of unlimited solidarity, not just in words but in deeds...
...Also to its credit, the administration has shown enough flexibility to abandon favored plans when they have proved unworkable...
...But he has also consistently supported liberal democratic processes and institutions in Iraq...
...It is the civilized world that will provide the meanings here...
...He has not offered the American people a plan for getting out this year or next year or offered any timetable at all...
...Everyone knew—or thought they knew—last fall that the politically expedient thing was to begin a serious drawdown of American forces...
...But the second should be to correct the misimpression that has led many in the European press to refer to the event as "Spain's September 11...
...On the subject of Iraqi reconstruction, however, Kerry has been, at best, hard to pin down...
...So is Le Monde to insist on its front page that "it is Europe and democracy that were attacked in Madrid...
...In the same way, March 11 is our March 11...
...In an interview after the vote, Kerry attempted to explain his decision by pointing to a poll the previous week which showed that many voters in three early primary states said they preferred a nominee who voted for the war but who was critical of Bush's handling of Iraq after the war...
...But by most accounts those vicious attacks have spurred more Iraqis to get more involved in building a better Iraq...
...But there are other measures of progress, as well...
...The perpetually sour American media focus on the tensions between Shiites and Kurds that delayed the signing by three whole days...
...Christopher Caldwell, for the Editors...
...Losing the peace would reinforce the view held by the extremists in the Arab and Islamic world that while the United States can project power, we have no staying power, and that all they have to do is wait us out...
...Kerry has frequently complained, for instance, about the costs of reconstruction...
...We wish we could say the same of John Kerry...
...Senator John McCain at the time accused Kerry, and John Edwards, of pandering to Howard Dean and the liberal base of the Democratic party...
...Rhetoric is one thing, and no candidate's rhetoric is entirely consistent throughout a campaign...
...Nor will the United States abandon Spain to its domestic terrorists on the equally false grounds that they are no concern of ours...
...These plans along with other instances of apparent wavering led many people in the United States, in Europe, and most damaging of all in Iraq, to conclude last fall that the Bush administration was looking for an early exit...
...It is so much bigger than that...
...But the vote on the $87 billion was real, and it was a test of a politician's willingness to set expediency aside...
...This willingness is the product of what appears to be a broad Iraqi consensus favoring the idea of pluralism...
...It was a vote to recognize that the differences countries may have in measuring, investigating, and assessing terrorism are minor in relation to their need for common purpose in the face of the terrorist threat...
...This has not only increased security but, just as importantly, has sent a powerful signal of U.S...
...There should be no debating the need to persevere...
...It's safe to say these Democrats did not vote for the $87 billion out of affection for George W. Bush or because they approved of Bush's conduct of foreign or domestic policy...
...And "Americans are paying it—in resources that could be used for health care, education, and our security here at home...
...If we lose Iraq, Iran becomes an incredibly empowered nation...
...Syria becomes more emboldened...
...To be sure, he has uttered these complaints in the context of chastising the Bush administration for not getting more help from the international community...
...What's more, there are hopeful signs that Iraqis of differing religious, ethnic, and political persuasions can work together...
...But the most important thing the administration has done is to make clear, both in word and in deed, its determination to see our mission in Iraq completed...
...That was the audience Kerry played to on the most important foreign policy vote in 2003: the authorization of $87 billion for the reconstruction of Iraq...
...The fate of Iraq is so important that we would much prefer to have each candidate this fall trying to outbid the other on who would do the most to ensure success there...
...I think over time it's sinking in,'' Kerry told reporters...
...Indeed, he has been more persistent in urging free and democratic elections than some top American officials, who for months put off elections out of fear of their possible consequences and tried to £ set up a clumsy system of "caucuses" to choose a constituent assembly...
...determination to remain in Iraq as long as needed...
...Yet here, too, the Iraqis seem to have struck a hopeful balance...
...We should not be opening firehouses in Baghdad and closing them down in New York City...
...Having been attacked in al Qaeda communiques as both a "crusader" country and an "apostate" former Islamic land, Spain will not delude itself that making nice—^by, for instance, distancing itself from the U.S.-led war on terror— will ransom it from al Qaeda's wrath...
...Iran, surrounded by the failed states of Iraq and Afghanistan, puts in jeopardy the very existence of Pakistan...
...Iraq One Year Later A year has passed since the invasion of Iraq, and while no sensible person would claim that Iraqis are safely and irrevocably on a course to liberal democracy, the honest and rather remarkable truth is that they have made enormous strides in that direction...
...Pat Cox, the president of the European parliament, is correct to call the Madrid attacks a "declaration of war on democracy...
...He continued: The reality of the present is that the window of opportunity is closing on our ability to bring peace to Iraq...
...Fortunately, President Bush moved to squelch all talk of an exit strategy, and the number of American troops in Iraq has actually risen slightly...
...At worst, he has pandered not only to the left wing of the his party but to Americans' worst instincts...
...But there is no mistaking Kerry's deliberate effort play to those American voters, across the political spectrum, who want to know why the United States should spend a penny on reconstruction in Iraq or anywhere else abroad for that matter...
...Kerry, of course, claims that he didn't like the particulars of Bush's proposal or the way Bush was conducting international diplomacy...
Vol. 9 • March 2004 • No. 27
