inside the glass house

Iraq: US desperately seeking a way out
NEW YORK -- The United States went to war with Iraq in defiance of world public opinion and in clear violation of the UN charter. Justifying that might is right, the hardcore right-wing conservatives in the Bush administration were even contemptuous of the United Nations -- particularly when the UN Security Council refused to give the US a resolution justifying the need for a war.

But last week -- with a mounting death toll and declining morale among US soldiers -- the Bush administration signalled a message that it may return to the world body for a new UN resolution to raise a multinational blue-helmeted peacekeeping force to police Iraq.

The proposed move was meant, among other things, to appease countries such as France, Germany, India and Pakistan who say they are willing to provide troops only for a UN authorised peacekeeping force in Iraq.

If the US agrees to such a force, it will certainly dilute its authority as an occupying power in Iraq. But how much of political power and military authority it is willing to concede to the United Nations remains to be seen.

As of last week, the total death toll reached 147, equalling the number of soldiers who died in the 1991 Gulf War. Meanwhile, the US has also turned to Arab nations-- specifically to Egypt-- for troops to serve in a multinational force.

According to a report in the Lebanese newspaper al-Kifah al-Arabi, the Bush administration is also exploring the possibility of getting troops from member nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a strongly pro-American regional grouping comprising Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
But last week an Iraqi resistance group warned foreign countries, including Arab nations, not to cave in to US demands.

"We will resist with weapons any military intervention under the umbrella of the United Nations, the Security Council, NATO, or Islamic and Arab countries," the Iraq Liberation Army said in a statement broadcast on the Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV network.
With dramatic new developments in Iraq last week, the Bush administration has been desperately seeking a way out of the impasse.

The newly-appointed US military commander in Iraq, General John Abizaid contradicted his boss Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld when he described the attacks on American forces as "a classic guerrilla-type campaign."

Abizaid, an Arabic speaking American of Lebanese origin, warned that the only way to contain the growing insurrection is to pour in fresh troops for a long haul. "It's a low-intensity conflict, in our doctrinal terms, but it's war, however," he said.

Abizaid said that the level of resistance is getting more organised. "It is learning. It is adapting... And we've got to adapt to their tactics, techniques and procedures."
Last month, Rumsfeld not only refused to concede a comparison between Iraq and Vietnam but also dismissed the Iraqi resistance as too unorganised to be dubbed a "guerrilla war."

And for the first time, American soldiers in Iraq have been quoted in newsreports as criticising their superiors in Washington. When US forces ousted the Saddam Hussein regime, one of the first things the Bush administration did was to provide a deck of cards with faces of the "most wanted" Iraqis printed on them. The cards were meant for easy identification of Iraqi fugitives by US soldiers.

Last week, one news reporter said that a US soldier in Baghdad pulled him aside and told him. "I've got my own 'most wanted' list." "The aces in my deck are Paul Bremer, Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush and Paul Wolfowitz," he said.

Bremer is the highest ranking civilian administrator in Iraq and Wolfowitz is the deputy defense secretary, who along with Rumsfeld and Bush, are held responsible for the current debacle. Another group of soldiers were asked: "If Donald Rumsfeld were sitting here in front of us, what would you say to him". And one soldier responded: "I would ask him why we're still here, I'd ask him for his resignation."

The anger and the low morale among US troops have shaken the top brass at the Pentagon. Worse still is the public defiance of US soldiers who are beginning to lose faith in their military mission in Iraq.

The infantry division of the US army, currently in Iraq, is essentially a fighting force. It is not geared for peacekeeping operations, police work or to battle a guerrilla war. The soldiers are also angry that their original plans to return home have been postponed three times.

But the public defiance is not sitting well with the Bush administration or even US military commanders in Iraq. Abizaid put it this way: "None of us that wear this uniform is free to say anything disparaging about the secretary of defence or the president of the United States. We're not free to do that. It's our professional code."
Free speech certainly has its limitations.

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