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Kissinger says military victory not possible in Iraq
| No, it's not a stab in the back. Read on: |
TOKYO: Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who helped engineer the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, said Sunday the problems in Iraq are more complex than that conflict, and military victory is no longer possible.
He also said he sympathizes with the troubles facing U.S. President George W. Bush. "A 'military victory' in the sense of total control over the whole territory, imposed on the entire population, is not possible," Kissinger told The Associated Press in Tokyo, where he received an honorary degree from Waseda University.
The faceless, ubiquitous nature of Iraq's insurgency, as well as the religious divide between Shiite and Sunni rivals, makes negotiating peace more complex, he said. "It is a more complicated problem," Kissinger said. "The Vietnam War involved states, and you could negotiate with leaders who controlled a defined area."
| That's true enough, and it defines in part the problem we face. Success in Iraq means a level of violence remains that's more akin to other third-world states such as Nigeria and Columbia. There will be organized gangs and various low-level insurrections going on. It's going to take several decades for the Iraqi people to buy into the ideas of personal liberty and rule of law, if they do so. |
But Kissinger, an architect of the Vietnam War who has also advised Bush on Iraq, warned that a sudden pullout of U.S. troops or loss of influence could unleash chaos. "I am basically sympathetic to President Bush," he said. "I am partly sympathetic to it because I have seen comparable situations."
Kissinger said the best way forward is to reconcile the differences between Iraq's warring sects with help from other countries. He applauded efforts to host an international conference bringing together the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Iraq's neighbors including Iran, Washington's longtime rival in the region. "That is the sort of framework out of which it is conceivable that an agreement should emerge," Kissinger said. "One needs to be prepared to negotiate with adversaries."
| Negotiating with Sunni tribes is fine; negotiating with al-Qaeda is not. Negotiating with Shi'a leaders is fine, negotiating with Mookie is not. |
Kissinger said that fighting in Iraq is likely to continue for years, and that America's national interest requires an end to partisan bickering at home over war policy. "The role of America in the world cannot be defined by our internal partisan quarrels," he said. "All the leaders, both Republican and Democratic, have to remember that it will go on for several more years and find some basis for common action."
| The Democrats aren't interested in common action right now; they're still mad with rage over the 2000 election, and the 1994 election, and being locked out of the spoils, and having their personal apple-carts overturned. Reasonable Democrats who are interested in dealing with the WoT are being hammered down by the far left. Those reasonable Democrats have to grow a spine and push back or it will be the Republicans against the Kos Kiddies for the next decade, and that's a scary thought. |
Posted by: Steve White 2007-04-02 |
