About That Unity Government in Iraq...

In Wednesday's New York Times, former Democratic presidential candidate and Massachussets senator, John Kerry, offers the Bush administration some advice in his editorial, "Two Deadlines and An Exit".

WE are now in the third war in Iraq in as many years. The first was against Saddam Hussein and his supposed weapons of mass destruction. The second was against terrorists whom, the administration said, it was better to fight over there than here. Now we find our troops in the middle of an escalating civil war.

Half of the service members listed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall died after America's leaders knew our strategy would not work. It was immoral then and it would be immoral now to engage in the same delusion. We want democracy in Iraq, but Iraqis must want it as much as we do. Our valiant soldiers can't bring democracy to Iraq if Iraq's leaders are unwilling themselves to make the compromises that democracy requires.

As our generals have said, the war cannot be won militarily. It must be won politically. No American soldier should be sacrificed because Iraqi politicians refuse to resolve their ethnic and political differences.

Kerry's first suggestion is sure to draw a lot of fire from the right:

Iraqi politicians should be told that they have until May 15 to put together an effective unity government or we will immediately withdraw our military.

And, if a government is formed:

If Iraq's leaders succeed in putting together a government, then we must agree on another deadline: a schedule for withdrawing American combat forces by year's end.

Kerry goes further by suggesting that coalition soldiers necessary for training Iraqi troops should stay on; a summit should be held; redeploying US troops to "garrisoned status" to put more pressure on the Iraqi government to act; using troops only in emergency situations, allowing Iraqi soldiers to take the lead and only using special ops teams in Iraq on "hard intelligence leads".

The Bush administration and all Republicans have been attacking to Democrats for months, if not years, for not having a plan to deal with the Iraq situation. Kerry has now provided an aggressive one that could effectively deal with the political problems. There's no doubt it will be summarily criticized as being too hard-handed.

And then there's this little problem, which is outlined in Wednesday's Washington Post: "Democracy In Iraq Not A Priority in U.S. Budget".

While President Bush vows to transform Iraq into a beacon of democracy in the Middle East, his administration has been scaling back funding for the main organizations trying to carry out his vision by building democratic institutions such as political parties and civil society groups.

The administration has included limited new money for traditional democracy promotion in budget requests to Congress. Some organizations face funding cutoffs this month, while others struggle to stretch resources through the summer. The shortfall threatens projects that teach Iraqis how to create and sustain political parties, think tanks, human rights groups, independent media outlets, trade unions and other elements of democratic society.
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Officials at the White House, the State Department, the Office of Management and Budget and USAID were contacted for comment in recent days, but none would speak on the record.

The article details cuts to necessary programs that would move forward the democratization of Iraq.

So, while Bush is publicly pressuring the Iraqi government to get on with it, he's pulling the rug out from under its feet. Yet another massive strategic failure in what has become a huge neocon farce of a situation. A very deadly farce with no end in sight.