A new assessment of U.S. policy in Iraq by the same experts who advised the original Iraq Study Group concludes that political progress is "so slow, halting and superficial" and political fragmentation "so pronounced" that the United States is no closer to being able to leave Iraq than it was a year ago.
The experts were reassembled by the U.S. Institute of Peace, which convened the congressionally mandated Iraq Study Group, a high-level panel that assessed U.S. policy in Iraq and offered recommendations in 2006. The new report predicts that lasting political development could take five to 10 years of "full, unconditional commitment" to Iraq, but also cautions that future progress may not be worth the "massive" human and financial costs to the United States. Some recent favorable developments in Iraq come from factors "that are outside U.S. control" and susceptible to rapid change, the report said, including the cease-fire by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and the new Sunni Awakening councils made up of former insurgents and tribal leaders opposed to the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.…Should the United States opt to remain fully engaged in Iraq, the new report argues, a greater emphasis on political and economic development at the local level is critical, as the Maliki government, elected in 2005, has failed to connect with its own people. "Rather than trying to resolve long-term, controversial political issues about the nature of the Iraqi state, the U.S. could let those questions linger and instead work on governing capacity building at the provincial and local levels and cultivating new, local leaders," it advises. The rise of local leaders and parties could then create the circumstances for genuine reconciliation, the report says.The political, military and intelligence experts, some of whom have served in government, also urge consideration of a "grand bargain" to bring all Iraqi factions together to discuss the core disputes, including the distribution of power, federalism and constitutional revisions. The report outlines two options if Washington seeks to reduce its Iraq commitment. The first option would peg U.S. engagement to Iraq’s agreement to decentralize power to its provinces, leaving the Baghdad government in charge of national defense and revenue distribution only. If Iraq fails to act, however, Washington should "cut its losses" and work out a withdrawal schedule; if Iraq complies, the United States should maintain a reduced troop presence to train the army and police.
I guess they’re still trying, even after Bush denied their last shot with his "Surge" over a year ago. But frankly, it’s not ours to decide. The United States of American elected madmen who invaded Iraq with an absurd rationalization that we were doing a decent thing. We weren’t. Given our current history of failure, the disaterous consequences to the the world and our own country, and the fact that our own government should be [and probably will be] charged with War Crimes, it’s unlikely that the fate of Iraq is in our hands in any way. So assembling our experts again is a noble, but futile exercise. We’re so used to being "the big guys," that we don’t seem to understand that our day in Iraq has passed…
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