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LAST week in the London Independent newspaper, Iraq's former defence minister Ali Allawi suggested a way out of the disaster his country has become in the wake of its invasion almost four years ago by the United States and Great Britain. Allawi's blueprint is fascinating. While recognising that the solution must be first and foremost an internal one . . . "no foreign power, no matter how benevolent, should be allowed to dictate the terms of a possible historical agreement", he said . . . he does provide some face-saving suggestions for George Bush and Tony Blair which might allow them to portray, in years to come, the invasion as justified and successful.
Allawi's proposals are all-inclusive. The Shias, the majority community in Iraq, clearly must be accommodated in the new Iraq. So too must the Sunni Arabs, now fearful that the loss of the untrammelled power they held under Saddam Hussein will lead to discrimination and extinction.
The Kurds must also be looked after.
To an extent, the proposals in Allawi's document reflect the findings of the Iraq Study Group, set up by the US Congress to find a way out of the Iraqi mire, which reported just before Christmas. A scathing critique of the invasion and its aftermath, the group's report recommended a gradual withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and engagement with some of the influential regional powers in the area, something also favoured by Allawi.
Instead, it seems, President Bush is to continue with his policy of fighting fire with fire. A "surge" of 20,000 troops in a last-ditch effort to end the insurgency seems certain to be announced by the US this week, a decision which will be anathema not just to most of the rest of the world, but also to the majority of Americans, who dearly want to see their troops come home.
There are no limits, it seems, to the incompetence of the current US administration.
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YOU ARE HERE: 11 November 2007 / tribune.ie / 2007 / 01 / 07
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