Iraq Pull Out

The top Iraqi General has said he would like U.S troops to stay another twenty years. This is clearly impossible, although I am sure there are elemnts in the Pentagon who would love it.

What the General’s comments underline is the chronic instability of the Iraqi State as a viable, self sustaining structure, able to stand by consensus and cooperation among its people. Most of its history, from inception, has either been the exploitative, though fair, administration of the British Empire or the Sunni dominated regime of Saddam Hussein and the Ba’athists. Neither of these administrative systems was concensual. Both imposed discipline and order at the cost of freedoms, which are today described as human rights. There is no doubt that Saddam’s regime was brutal and favoured Sunnis over Shiites and Kurds.

There can be no  prediction of how this is going to end, whether Iraq will survive as a single state, whether it or its successor components will be democratic or whether there will be civil war. All we can say is that the security situation appears ominous, the democracy seems unable to pass the key test of producing a government and  more bloodshed is certain.

In this condition of current affairs, any judgement overall must be unreliable. However as the combat troops prepare to leave, let us not forget the aim of the mission. It was to effect regime change and establish a ‘beacon of democracy’ to bring peace across the Middle East. Oh yes, and to get at those weapons of mass destruction. Judged in the terms of aim versus outcome, it ranks as one of the greatest political and military failures in history.