They Were a Success for Most Iraqis but May Yet Lead to Failure for the United States

By Frank Smyth

The failure of the U.S.-backed election in Iraq is not that it was illegitimate for most Iraqis but that the exercise has only deepened Iraq’s sectarian divisions and perhaps moved the country closer toward the specter of a full-scale civil war.

Progressives should remain critical of the January 30 election but not for the reasons that most have articulated so far. Many anti-war critics were so busy pooh-poohing the balloting as a farce engineered by the Bush administration that they forgot that Washington had only agreed to the election under Iraqi Shi’ite pressure. The first U.S. plan for Iraq was to hold indirect elections through regional caucuses, a process that would have lent itself far more easily to American manipulation. But Iraq’s Shi’ite grand ayatollah, Ali Sistani, and other Iraqis said no. Actually, the election results are not likely to enhance American influence over Iraq. According to the reliable Arab-run polling firm, Zogby International, more than two-thirds of Iraq’s Shi’ites want U.S. forces out of Iraq either immediately or once the elected government is in place. That goal may be unrealistic, since any sudden withdrawal of U.S. forces could well plunge Iraq into civil war, but it underscores that the election was a step forward for Iraqi sovereignty, despite the conditions of U.S. military occupation in which it took place. U.S. progressives could help Iraqis reach their goal by ensuring that a transfer of power actually occurs.

Frank Smyth is a freelance journalist writing a book on the 1991 uprisings against Saddam Hussein, which he covered at the time from inside Iraq for CBS News, The Economist, and The Village Voice. He is the co-author of Dialogue and Armed Conflict: Negotiating the Civil War in El Salvador and of El Salvador: Is Peace Possible? and a regular contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org) His clips are posted at www.franksmyth.com.

See new FPIF Policy Report online at:
http://www.fpif.org/papers/0502after.html

With printer-friendly pdf version at:
http://www.fpif.org/pdf/papers/0502after.pdf

What failure exactly?

If it is a failure it's only because the people of Iraqi failed to take control of their own country.
The U.S. gave them their country back on a silver plater and they risk loosing it all due to their own greed and sibling rivalries.
Of course they'll blame the States for anything that goes wrong because that would disolve themselves of any actual taking of responsibility.

___________________
"...End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path...one that we all must take.
The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all change to silver glass...and then you see it...
...white shores...and beyond...the far green country under a swift sunrise."

quote:

Originally posted by Fir3start3r The U.S. gave them their country back on a silver plater and they risk loosing it all due to their own greed and sibling rivalries. Of course they'll blame the States for anything that goes wrong because that would disolve themselves of any actual taking of responsibility.

Rivalries that predate our own country's very existence, which have occured amongst the 2,000+ multiethnic tribes in a country that was initially founded as a British Colony after the invasion of Ottoman Mesopotamia.

(The Brit's were the first to use chemical weapons in Iraq, btw - dropping poison gas on the Kurd's back in 1925)

I was actually just doing a little research on the Sykes-Picot agreement. Developing a historical understanding of the region, especially in regards to it's history of Colonial Imperialism, etc., is one of the keys to understanding our current debacle in the region

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/sykes.htm

quote:

Originally posted by Fir3start3r What failure exactly? If it is a failure it's only because the people of Iraqi failed to take control of their own country.

Anyway, don't you people ever grow tired of the half-hearted apologetics?

So now if our invasion of (the once sovereign nation of) Iraq doesn't bear fruit, it's all the Iraqi people's fault? LMAO

I'm beginning to think that you guys would happily attempt to justify anything using your power of deceit.

quote:

Originally posted by Trancer-X [color=#33ccff] So now if our invasion of (the once sovereign nation of) Iraq doesn't bear fruit, it's all the Iraqi people's fault? LMAO

Are you actually suggesting they were better off with Saddam??!HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

___________________
"...End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path...one that we all must take.
The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all change to silver glass...and then you see it...
...white shores...and beyond...the far green country under a swift sunrise."

quote:

Originally posted by Fir3start3r Are you actually suggesting they were better off with Saddam??!HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

No, but I'm suggesting that you're an idiot.

It always amuzes me that when people are faced with facts how childish some can be...

___________________
"...End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path...one that we all must take.
The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all change to silver glass...and then you see it...
...white shores...and beyond...the far green country under a swift sunrise."

quote:

Originally posted by Fir3start3r It always amuzes me that when people are faced with facts how childish some can be...

What facts? The fact that you tried to put words in my mouth?

I'm not about to fall for your BS.

You talk about being faced with facts, yet you clearly don't understand much of what you argue about on this forum. I'd call that idiocy, just as I did in my last post.

Lets just leave it at you have your POV and I have mine.
Calling me an idiot does nothing for your POV and arguements other than point out the fact that you can't stand another's opinion other than your own.
Unfortunate since you do have some good arguement material...

___________________
"...End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path...one that we all must take.
The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all change to silver glass...and then you see it...
...white shores...and beyond...the far green country under a swift sunrise."

quote:

Originally posted by Fir3start3r What failure exactly? If it is a failure it's only because the people of Iraqi failed to take control of their own country. The U.S. gave them their country back on a silver plater and they risk loosing it all due to their own greed and sibling rivalries. Of course they'll blame the States for anything that goes wrong because that would disolve themselves of any actual taking of responsibility.

Thats why we should have never went there in the first place. It would be extremely naiive to think the motivation behind the war was truly to bring "freedom" to Iraq.

___________________
I've never been able to eat a whole baby.
Kill the women. Eat the children.
It's just one of those days where you want to bend over everyone you know and kiss their ass goodbye with a big sideways boot.

Latest Mix

quote:

Originally posted by Fir3start3r Calling me an idiot does nothing for your POV and arguements other than point out the fact that you can't stand another's opinion other than your own.

Well, I guess you could say that I felt compelled to take drastic steps in a last ditch effort to bring myself down to your level.

And on the contrary, I revel in listening to other's viewpoints no matter how dissenting - just so long as they are somewhat formulated and/or intelligent. I would classify yours as neither/nor.

quote:

Originally posted by Zild It would be extremely naiive to think the motivation behind the war was truly to bring "freedom" to Iraq.

But that's what the pundit's want you to believe. In many cases it seems to be working for them.

"All this was inspired by the principle - which is quite true in itself - that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying. These people know only too well how to use falsehood for the basest purposes."

- Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)