What is to be done about Iraq
We progressives were correct all along. But so what now? My sense is that the current Administration's broken command structure must be fixed if the least bad path forward for Iraq is to be found. Congressional leaders from both parties should insist that the President name Messrs. Powell and Holbrooke as co-leaders of all military, diplomatic, and security matters relating to the Middle East. They should report jointly to the President and a bipartisan Congressional ad hoc committee including only people not running for President in 2008. The Secs of Defense and State should be at their disposal. And for the next three years they should negotiate and preserve a regional peacekeeping deal among Iran, SA, Turkey, and Jordan, a partition of Iraq into security zones like post-War Germany, and the withdrawal of American troops, as well as an allocation of Iraqi resources and Western cash among the myriad factions. After that the new American President can take over in the normal way.


In other words, we have to wrest power from this administration. I seriously doubt they'll give it up. Between the ideologues, deaf and blind to everything but the echoes in their heads and the power mad, Cheney, and the pig-headed Bush, and the my-plan-will-work-eventually-Rummy it's not going to happen. Just try to put Rove in the back seat. Your suggestion makes good sense, but it takes people with good sense to appreciate it, and your projected audience has not one iota of good sense.
February 25, 2006 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
let's put aside, for the moment, the debased coinage of powell's credibility - at least reed is trying to come up with a solution.
sadly, there are none, because any solution must be premised on an ability by george bush to think things through beyond the level of '50s tv western abstractions of "good" and "bad."
lacking such an ability, and lacking the strength of character to admit error about anything other than trading sammy sosa, bush has no intention of changing course and won't accept a course change imposed by others.
besides, don't you realize, reed, you're just succumbing to that awful media silliness? actually, 27M iraqis survived yesterday, and thousands of buildings weren't destroyed.
February 25, 2006 1:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
You have a great idea Reed! In addition we need to put the homeland security department under the command of Jimmy Carter and GHWBush, put the Labor Department under the command of Mary Matalin and her husband, put the Justice Department under the command of Janet Reno and Mits Romney, and, and.......... I'll let you be the one to bring this all about. You might want to seek divine powers first, just to help a little. While you are at it, be sure to buy a winning ticket in the next $100 milion lottery for me.
Hoppy in Sacramento
February 25, 2006 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
How about the following alternative: pull back the troops immeditely on an aggressive schedule and let the people from Iraq decide its future. Use diplomatic and subtle economic pressure on Turkey and Saudi Arabia to ensure they do not interfere in Iraq.
If Iran and Syria do not stop interfering in Iraq immediately, pressure the Europeans, Chinese, Russians and Indians to impose harsh economic sanctions quickly. It that does not work, either because we can't pull out a united diplomatic front to impose sanctions, or because the sanctions are not effective, bomb Iranian and Syrian military installations and infrastructure (and nuclear program while we are at it) until they buckle and stop interfering or their governments fall (or at least their military and strategic infrastructure is materially compromised).
While we are at it, shift the troops from Iraq to Afghanistan and Western Pakistan and please catch Osama, Omar, and the other perpetrators of 9/11.
February 25, 2006 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
And don't forget to put the FCC under Reed Hundt and Ed Whitacre! Now, that would be fun, fun, fun...
February 25, 2006 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bush has blown too many lives, dollars in the bloody mess of Iraq. He has also shattered US world credibility and prestige. Bush/Cheney and Co. have made nothing but gross errors since day one. There is no evidence that there is any 'way out' of the bloody cauldron of Iraq. 27 million Iraqi's survived 'yesterday', half of whom approve of the killing of US troops occupying their country. Iran is playing chicken with the US. Hamas is victorious in Palestine. Iraqi oil production is well below what it was in Feb. 2003. Carter had 52 hostages, Bush has placed 130,000 troops hostage to an Iraqi government dominated by the Iranian backed Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Bush will stay the course until either our military readiness or our economy, or both, hit the wall.
No country can continue to thrive with such poor leadership.
February 25, 2006 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
J. McCutchen "JmacSF"
San Francisco. CA
Pardon my schadenfreude folks...I am told I get a grade of A from the a--hole dept
Muqtada Cemnts Alliance With Sunni Islamists
February 25, 2006 2:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
It that does not work, either because we can't pull out a united diplomatic front to impose sanctions, or because the sanctions are not effective, bomb Iranian and Syrian military installations and infrastructure (and nuclear program while we are at it) until they buckle and stop interfering or their governments fall (or at least their military and strategic infrastructure is materially compromised).
I see - in order to divert attention from a small scale civil war, you propose to start a much bigger war. Devious!
Now seriously, wasn't bombing military and strategic infrastructure exactly how the Iraq mess started?
February 25, 2006 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
J. McCutchen "JmacSF"
San Francisco. CA
Reed ain't wrong. Impeachment in place is long shot for sure but just as surely something has to be done before Bush makes a horrible situation more horribler
Highly recommended reading: "THE CASE FOR IMPEACHMENT...Why we can no longer afford George W. Bush" by Lewis H. Lapham, Harper's March 2006.
This long, well-documented feature article of March "Harper's" is a must read. It concludes as follows
February 25, 2006 2:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
So we not only partition Iraq, we divvy the pieces amongst our allies. What will happen? The Sunnis will continue their insurgency, but now the Shiites and Kurds will join. The Kurds because above all they don't want Turkish control, and the Shiites because they will (understandably) object to a country in which they are a majority being divided amongst Sunni powers. (Iran will never be part of a security deal in Iraq, for obvious political reasons.) Neither SA nor Jordan will bite on the deal anyway if they have any brains - it's an invitation to massive uprisings in their countries. This proposal would be a catastrophe.
And "harsh economic sanctions" have roughly zero impact on state policies and unlikely ever to be approved by the states in question. A bombing campaign against Iran and Syria would rally the rest of the ME to them, rally their populations to their current leaders, and rally the entire world against us. Look at what happened to Nasser's standing after the Tri-Partite Aggression.
February 25, 2006 3:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
J. McCutchen "JmacSF"
San Francisco. CA
I read the other day that the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints was investigating John Paul II"s first miracle
I think I found Miracle 2
And from the sacred to the profane, Better Late Than Never Caucus..
In a past life, I litigated Corps of Engineers contract appeals for construction contractors. So may be it's just me, but I never saw a plan that didn't have a milestone for exit
Sooo, as I was fond of reminding (hectoring?) clients' construction managers, "if you do not have a plan, your plan is to fail"
February 25, 2006 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
J. McCutchen "JmacSF"
San Francisco. CA
Just curious if anyone knows....the experts' conference above featuring Odom, Korb and others was aponsored by an outfit called the Independent Institute.
Their contact info has Oakland CA as main but most the lifting seems to be done in DC
Wassup with that?
February 25, 2006 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
J. McCutchen "JmacSF"
San Francisco. CA
Some sort of sick joke right?
February 25, 2006 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
... and a pony. Don't forget the pony.
February 25, 2006 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Stick to media, Reed.
Your plan isn't even remotely possible, let alone feasible.
First of all, the people you suggest as replacements for the idiots in power are basically toadies and don't have any particular ability to solve the problems themselves. Not to mention that the neocons and the forces behind them aren't about to let themselves be tossed out of power that easily. Only a mass revolt by the US population at the polls which basically got rid of every major Senator and Congressman currently incumbent would stand the slightest chance of this - and that isn't even remotely possible. Most of the bozos behind the Iraq war were not elected, they were appointed by the bozos who were elected. Unless you get rid of Bush, Cheney, and the entire Cabinet, these same neocon bozos will remain at the UN, Defense Department and State Department and Department of Justice and continue their conspiracies to destroy this country.
So unless you're advocating immediate impeachment of the entire government, fergeddaboutit.
Second, the Secretaries of Defense and State need to be removed immediately not just "put at someone's disposal" - that was a joke, right? Since when are Cabinet level officers "at someone's disposal?" Good luck getting that to happen - you might succeed with Rumsfeld, whom everybody agrees is an arrogant asshole (as the late Colonel Hackworth described him), but you'll never get rid of Rice.
Third, getting Iran, Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to negotiate a "regional peace plan" without Israel is a total waste of time. Not to mention that Iran is unlikely to cooperate while it faces an immediate threat of military attack by both the US and Israel. And Turkey is not going to go along unless it gets guarantees that the Kurds will NOT get a federated state with access to Kirkuk's oil revenues - and the Kurds will never go along with that, so there goes your plan.
Fourth, "security zones"? Since when is Iraq anything like Germany? How do you propose keeping people inside their little "zones"? Iraqi troops? Don't make me laugh. US troops? So how do they leave then? A wall like Israel's? Right, that will work...
Fifth, allocation of resources among factions? And how would that happen? Let's leave aside the fact that merely taking cash from the US is enough to make you a collaborator with the occupation in Iraq, if you allocate according to population, the Shia get the bulk of the resources - and the Sunnis and Kurds won't go along with that. There goes that plan.
The only thing you got right was in withdrawing US troops - which needs to be done YESTERDAY. Forget the pipe dream of preventing the collapse of Iraq into an anarchy occupied by terrorists - that's already happened. Get the troops OUT before they all get killed (or have to kill half the Iraqi population) in a civil war should be the US's priority right now.
Like I said, stick to media issues, Reed. You're useless at geopolitics.
Richard Steven Hack
www.computerproblemssolvedcheap.com
February 25, 2006 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good post but remember the bozos behind the bozos who engineered the Iraq disaster weren't elected either. They stole the election courtesy of James Baker, Katherine Harris, et al.
Tom
February 25, 2006 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I think the President should appoint a bipartisan Commission on What is to be Done About Iraq.
February 25, 2006 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Appointing a bipartisan commission on "What is to be Done About Iraq" would be a step in the right direction but do you really believe that the bipartisan commission would be selected on the basic principles that bipartisanship should entail?
I agree with appointing a commission and really believe it will come to paramount in due time but not any time soon.
We are still fighting "Terrorists, Ghouls, & Goblins." (Sarcasm).
February 25, 2006 5:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
The fact that GWB won't accept this is what makes it brilliant. Because if Dems win control of either house of Congress, they could refuse to approve of new funding for Iraq (or something else Bush wants money for). Which means the 2006 elections offer a chance to the American people to make Bush do something he doesn't want to do--hand off control to someone more competant. And this strategy doesn't just stop at Iraq--homeland security, Katrina reconstruction, or any other place in which competance is an issue gives the Democrats a chance to make the election a referendum on the President's past abysmal progress. It avoids the problem of a lack of consensus on the Dem side on exactly what we should do in Iraq--because there is wide consensus that whatever the current strategy is, it's being implemented incompetently.
February 25, 2006 5:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sometimes (always) SIMPLE is best...There was nothing but totalitarian government in Iraq BEFORE March 2003...why not pull ALL U.S. forces out immediately and let the best (most well-organized) militia and it's faction re-establish a totalitarian regime in Iraq?
Seedee
February 25, 2006 5:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
I appauld Mr Hundt's idea. But Bush already passed up an opportunity two years ago when there was, perhaps, a chance for a better outcome. Back when the Abu Ghraib horrors first hit the headlines, I wondered if Bush might trim his sails and alter course: fire Rummy and put Powell in charge at the Pentagon, demand Cheney's resignation and move to form some sort of coaltion government with the Democratic leadership. Riiiight. The idea of our mulish, idiot president admitting error, even if it's only to himself, has about as much chance to happening now as it did then. None.
February 25, 2006 5:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was thinking more along the lines of Dan K's comment, above.
February 25, 2006 7:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
You think the FCC under Michael Powell and it current chairman is better? Daniel A. Greenbaum
February 25, 2006 7:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Right after reading that the Mossad had blown up the Mosque someone esle told me it was the Iranians in order to stir up the Iraq Shiites.
Daniel A. Greenbaum
February 25, 2006 7:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I watched it on CSPAN2 and posts a very brief summary about it. It was very interesting. They all want us out of Iraq sooner rather than later.
[Independent Institute www.independent.org/events/detail.asp?eventID=115]
I hope this helps.
Daniel A. Greenbaum
February 25, 2006 7:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ellen?
Would this "bi-partisan" commission of which you speak be anything like the Commission on What the Hell Are We Doing In Vietnam first proposed by that famous American statesman Milton Supman back in the late 60s?February 25, 2006 8:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nothing could beat the hypothetical Hundt-Whitacre discussions on the existence or not of natural monopolies in the telecom industry, and the subtleties of intra and inter modal competition...
I hope Reed has his hat and boots ready for some Texan-style Lux and Veritas
February 25, 2006 8:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't you have to get past denial to get on the road to recovery? Why don't we discuss this after the White House issues a plea for help?
February 25, 2006 8:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
The unfortunate fact is that the bozos behind the bozos behind the bozos who engineered the Iraq disaster, and ultimately those responsible, are those who voted for an obviously incompetent Bush. If that don't frost you enough, recall that they then turned around and did it again.
Hoppy in Sacramento
February 25, 2006 8:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is probably the same commission, just about ready to hold their first meeting. If not, then by the time such a commission could be assembled and agree on the ground rules we will be mired in Iran instead of Iraq.
Hoppy in Sacramento
February 25, 2006 8:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
If Saddam would take the job give it to him.
He might be the only guy that can enforce the law west (and east) of the Euphrates. It would spoil Iranian plans. Most Americans would forget the whole thing by the next Super Bowl. Given control again, Saddam might even cut some deals with Halliburton.
It could be sold to the Bush base Red states as 'the ragheads deserve him'.
February 25, 2006 8:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's strange that you should bring that up. I happen to know where there is a guy who has already proven he can control the factions in Iraq, keep the peace, get the oil flowing, and get the trains running on time. He is pretty well rested too.
Hoppy in Sacramento
February 25, 2006 8:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why would any leftist or moderate be happy if a politcal party rode to electoral victory by attacking Bush from the paranoid anti-Arab right? I think this dust-up helps to expose the fear-mongering, anti-Arab, anti-Muslim militarist foreign policy of a future Clinton or other DLC Democrat administration. And, of course, we are repeatedly well-informed by the silences: about new Abu Ghraib revelations, about the near civil war breaking out in Iraq, and about the renewal of the Patriot Act (with the lone exception of Senator Feingold).
February 25, 2006 11:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Reed,
A sensible proposal, but no doubt lost on a president who is living in Orwell's 1984, and has gone down Carroll's "rabbit hole". And Cheny has designated himself the white rabbit, directing the maddness.
Invading Iraq was wrong, but it was done with insufficient troops to achieve the objective, assuming we would be embraced by all segments of the Iraqi population. Chalabi overestimated his popularity, and sold us a bill of goods. The crew running this mess refuses to recognize reality and change course, so we are stuck with "staying the (wrong) course". As you suggested, get us a new crew.
A starting point is to understand why we went to Iraq in the first place, and then step away from that policy. Read my explanation by searching my moniker "truthwithlogic" at blogspot.com.
Your bio fails to mention you were in the president's Yale class, and one of the more thoughtful members of that group. How this nitwit came to control our country is a great mystery (sort of), and it is great to see one of his contemporaries speak out. Keep it up.
February 26, 2006 12:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Great idea Reed, but I'm afraid VLaszlo has it nailed. The Bush Administrationn continues to catapult the propaganda that everything in Iraq is just fine.
I think we'll know when they're ready to admit that they don't have a clue about what to do in Iraq.
It'll be when they start blaming Liberals for the Civil War.
-Dave Adams-
February 26, 2006 12:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Reed, I personally believe your analysis and sentiments are correct. But...
It strikes me that appointing commissions and adding layers of bureaucracy are merely excuses for doing nothing.
What is really required is good, old-fashioned political activism of the kind that produced the Civil Rights act and got us out of Vietnam.
February 26, 2006 1:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
J. McCutchen "JmacSF"
San Francisco. CA
Why doees this man still have a job?
The flatulence of failure
February 26, 2006 1:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
J. McCutchen "JmacSF"
San Francisco. CA
February 26, 2006 1:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
J. McCutchen "JmacSF"
San Francisco. CA
Blackeyed looks from that Quran book
Bush's salvation is his worst nightmare
Violence began to recede following calls for restraint from Islamic religious leaders, including radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose own militia was blamed for many of the attacks on Sunnis.
On Saturday, al-Sadr's movement joined Sunni clerics in agreeing to prohibit killing members of the two sects and banning attacks on each other's mosques. The clerics issued a statement blaming "the occupiers," meaning the Americans and their coalition partners, for stirring up sectarian unrest.
"We demand that the occupiers leave or set a timetable for the withdrawal," the statement said.
AP
The "Firey" Cleric. That young man is going places.
February 26, 2006 2:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Before we do anything else with respect to Iraq, it would be useful if this administration acknowledged the truth about why we invaded in the first place. It is about oil. As Ted Koppel put it in a guest editorial in the NYTimes:
The U.S. is bound to the middle east, like it or not. The best way to let the Iraqis demonstrate that they can handle the unrest is to follow Murtha's lead: redeploy our military to the horizon. This would serve two purposes: our presence as an occupying force would be minimized and thus reduce some of the violent reaction to it and second, our presence on the horizon would serve as a deterrent to others from overt interference in Iraq.
It seems a hopeless task to recommend to this Bush administration that it include either Powell or Holebrook in its planning on what to do in Iraq. I am more sanguine about the longer term negotiations with other Arab allies in the region, if we can dispense with the insults to Muslims that have reinforced much of the violence against the U.S. presence. This administration has not been noted for its tone deaf politics until recently. We have to deal with Abu Graib, the perceived disrespect of the Prophet Muhammad and the Dubai Ports World miscue. My sense is that no one is minding the store on the political front in the White House.
Finally, it seems to me that Bush and Cheney got us into this mess; they know how to get us out of it. They just have to "screw their courage to the sticking point" and take responsibility for their errors. Meanwhile, the loyal opposition has to stop carping and support authentic efforts to resolve the problems in the middle east. Reed Hundt's post is a beginning.