It’s been a really discouraging weekend for the Lieberman-Kristol-McCain contingent of Iraq war supporters. Yesterday, Jonathan Finer explained that their visits to Baghdad — after which they boast of widespread “progress” — are scripted, largely “ceremonial” visits. Their “epiphanies” aren’t based on much, and shouldn’t be taken too seriously.
Today, champions of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy suffered another indignity with a powerful NYT op-ed from seven infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division, who will soon be returning home frustrated and jaded.
Joe Klein said the troops’ piece “puts to shame — and shame is the appropriate word — all the Kristol, McCain, Lieberman, Pollack and O’Hanlon etc etc cheerleading of the past two months.” I think that’s exactly right. From the op-ed:
Viewed from Iraq at the tail end of a 15-month deployment, the political debate in Washington is indeed surreal. Counterinsurgency is, by definition, a competition between insurgents and counterinsurgents for the control and support of a population. To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched. As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day.
The claim that we are increasingly in control of the battlefields in Iraq is an assessment arrived at through a flawed, American-centered framework. […]
Given the situation, it is important not to assess security from an American-centered perspective. The ability of, say, American observers to safely walk down the streets of formerly violent towns is not a resounding indicator of security. What matters is the experience of the local citizenry and the future of our counterinsurgency. When we take this view, we see that a vast majority of Iraqis feel increasingly insecure and view us as an occupation force that has failed to produce normalcy after four years and is increasingly unlikely to do so as we continue to arm each warring side.
To say this is vastly more important than the O’Hanlon/Pollack piece that shook up the political world a couple of weeks ago is an understatement.
This is powerful, reliable, and accurate stuff.
At the same time, the most important front in the counterinsurgency, improving basic social and economic conditions, is the one on which we have failed most miserably. Two million Iraqis are in refugee camps in bordering countries. Close to two million more are internally displaced and now fill many urban slums. Cities lack regular electricity, telephone services and sanitation. “Lucky” Iraqis live in gated communities barricaded with concrete blast walls that provide them with a sense of communal claustrophobia rather than any sense of security we would consider normal.
In a lawless environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act. Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence. When the primary preoccupation of average Iraqis is when and how they are likely to be killed, we can hardly feel smug as we hand out care packages. As an Iraqi man told us a few days ago with deep resignation, “We need security, not free food.”
In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are — an army of occupation — and force our withdrawal.
Read the whole thing, but keep a couple of things in mind. First, these seven members of the 82nd Airborne are showing courage on the battlefield, but they’re also showing political courage in writing this piece while serving on active duty. This isn’t an op-ed that is going to be well received at the White House, so kudos to all of them, not only for their service, but for putting in print what the nation needs to hear.
And second, like John Cole, I can’t help but wonder how the right will respond to something like this. I suppose there will be a temptation to kick the Smear Machine into high gear, but it’s probably more likely that conservatives will simply pretend the op-ed doesn’t exist. It would be far easier than challenging the piece’s conclusions.