Arab News Editorial

President George W. Bush’s press conference was designed to display a president resolute in the face of adversity, confident in his judgment and determined to see to the end the momentous mission he has taken on in Iraq. What it actually showed was a president whose administration is beginning to flounder because it has more or less run out of the few ideas it had in the first place.

The most significant evidence of this came with Bush’s announcement that he will now seek a new UN resolution to assist him in Iraq. The world body which, less than 18 months ago, he considered utterly irrelevant to his plans is now suddenly important. Whatever the future geopolitical implications of that, this will do nothing to heal the wounds which foolish and willful US policy is inflicting on Iraq.

The president’s insistence that the June 30 deadline for handing over power to the Iraqi interim authority, far from demonstrating resolution in the face of a rising tidal wave of violence, sounded more like an eagerly awaited opportunity to abandon an unmanageable situation.

At the same time, reacting to the consequences of the US iron-fist policy, the president told reporters that he would be sending whatever troops his commanders in Iraq said they needed. This is very close to pouring high octane fuel on already raging flames. The debacle at Fallujah has clearly taught the Americans nothing since they now seem set upon even more controversial actions in Najaf in their attempt to “capture or kill” the Shiite cleric, Moqtada Sadr. The tragedy is that this use of “decisive force” will simply force more Iraqis to decide that any hopes that they may have had of the Americans were utterly baseless.

The Americans no longer seem to be fighting in Iraq for the Iraqis but for themselves. American power is being humbled and with each humiliation, US anger is rising. What they saw initially as a noble mission to free the Iraqis is turning into a punitive expedition against what the US-led Coalition is seeing increasingly as an ungrateful and treacherous country. These are the incoherent and futile responses of Vietnam all over again. Washington has once again virtually given up on its hearts-and-minds policy. Lacking both the will and the necessary political insights to heal and bring together, it is resorting to its sole capabilities — those of punishment and destruction. By June 30, there may well be nothing but chaos to hand over to the interim Iraqi government. As the prime cause of that chaos, how can US troops continue to try and maintain security? Will they not want to cut their losses and run, thus leaving behind a far worse situation than they found the day they entered Iraq?