Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media: The Associated Press
Byline: HAMZA HENDAWI
Date: 21 October 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq_Offering an unusually candid assessment of America's
enterprise in Iraq, a senior U.S. diplomat said the United States had shown
"arrogance" and "stupidity" in Iraq, but warned that failure in the
violence-ridden Arab nation would be a disaster for the entire region.
In an interview with Al-Jazeera aired late Saturday, Alberto Fernandez,
director of public diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the
U.S. State Department, also said the United States was ready to talk with
any Iraqi group _ excluding al-Qaida in Iraq _ to reach national
reconciliation in the country, wracked by widening sectarian strife as well
as an enduring insurgency.
"We tried to do our best (in Iraq) but I think there is much room for
criticism because, undoubtedly, there was arrogance and there was stupidity
from the United States in Iraq," he said.
"We are open to dialogue because we all know that, at the end of the day,
the solution to the hell and the killings in Iraq is linked to an effective
Iraqi national reconciliation," he said, speaking in Arabic from Washington.
"The Iraqi government is convinced of this."
The question of negotiations between the United States and insurgency
factions has repeatedly surfaced over the past two years, but details have
been sketchy. One issue that was often raised in connection with such
negotiations was the extent of amnesty the United States and its Iraqi
allies were willing to offer to the insurgents if they disarmed and joined
the political process.
Fernandez spoke to the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television after a man
claiming to speak for Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath Party said the United
States was seeking a face-saving exodus from Iraq and that insurgents were
ready to negotiate but won't lay down arms.
"Abu Mohammed", a pseudonym for the man, appeared to set near impossible
conditions for the start of any talks with the Americans, including the
return to service of Saddam's armed forces, the annulment of every law
adopted since Saddam's ouster, the recognition of insurgent groups as the
sole representatives of the Iraqi people and a timetable of a gradual and
unconditional withdrawal of U.S. and other foreign troops in Iraq.
"The occupier has started to search for a face-saving way out. The
resistance, with all its factions, is determined to continue fighting until
the enemy is brought down to his knees and sits on the negotiating table or
is dealt, with God's help, a humiliating defeat," said Abu Mohammed, who
laid out his party's program for what he called "the independence of Iraq."
He wore a suit and appeared to be in his 40s. His face was concealed.
"There is an element of the farcical in that statement," said Fernandez of
Abu Mohammed's comments. "They are very removed from reality."
Fernandez said, however: "We are witnessing failure in Iraq and that's not
the failure of the United States alone but it is a disaster for the region.
Failure in Iraq will be a failure for the United States but a disaster for
the region."
Although the actual identity of Abu Mohammed remains unknown, the interview
adds to a growing body of evidence that Iraq's Sunni insurgents sense the
tide may be turning against the United States and the Iraqi government it
backs. Fernandez's comments, on the other hand, join a series of sobering
remarks by President Bush and the U.S. military in recent days.
Bush this week conceded that "right now it's tough" for U.S. forces in Iraq
and U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said attacks in
Baghdad were up 22 percent in the first three weeks of the holy Muslim month
of Ramadan despite a two-month old U.S.-Iraqi drive to crush violence in the
Iraqi capital.
On Wednesday, and again on Friday, Sunni insurgents believed to belong to
al-Qaida in Iraq, staged military-like parades in the heart of five towns in
the vast and mainly desert province of Anbar, including the provincial
capital Ramadi. Some of these parades, in which hooded gunmen paraded with
their weapons, took place within striking distance of U.S. forced stationed
in nearby bases.
The parades proved to be a propaganda success, with TV footage of
Wednesday's parade shown in many parts of the world, a likely embarrassment
for the U.S. military as well as the embattled Iraqi government.
Byline: HAMZA HENDAWI
Date: 21 October 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq_Offering an unusually candid assessment of America's
enterprise in Iraq, a senior U.S. diplomat said the United States had shown
"arrogance" and "stupidity" in Iraq, but warned that failure in the
violence-ridden Arab nation would be a disaster for the entire region.
In an interview with Al-Jazeera aired late Saturday, Alberto Fernandez,
director of public diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the
U.S. State Department, also said the United States was ready to talk with
any Iraqi group _ excluding al-Qaida in Iraq _ to reach national
reconciliation in the country, wracked by widening sectarian strife as well
as an enduring insurgency.
"We tried to do our best (in Iraq) but I think there is much room for
criticism because, undoubtedly, there was arrogance and there was stupidity
from the United States in Iraq," he said.
"We are open to dialogue because we all know that, at the end of the day,
the solution to the hell and the killings in Iraq is linked to an effective
Iraqi national reconciliation," he said, speaking in Arabic from Washington.
"The Iraqi government is convinced of this."
The question of negotiations between the United States and insurgency
factions has repeatedly surfaced over the past two years, but details have
been sketchy. One issue that was often raised in connection with such
negotiations was the extent of amnesty the United States and its Iraqi
allies were willing to offer to the insurgents if they disarmed and joined
the political process.
Fernandez spoke to the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television after a man
claiming to speak for Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath Party said the United
States was seeking a face-saving exodus from Iraq and that insurgents were
ready to negotiate but won't lay down arms.
"Abu Mohammed", a pseudonym for the man, appeared to set near impossible
conditions for the start of any talks with the Americans, including the
return to service of Saddam's armed forces, the annulment of every law
adopted since Saddam's ouster, the recognition of insurgent groups as the
sole representatives of the Iraqi people and a timetable of a gradual and
unconditional withdrawal of U.S. and other foreign troops in Iraq.
"The occupier has started to search for a face-saving way out. The
resistance, with all its factions, is determined to continue fighting until
the enemy is brought down to his knees and sits on the negotiating table or
is dealt, with God's help, a humiliating defeat," said Abu Mohammed, who
laid out his party's program for what he called "the independence of Iraq."
He wore a suit and appeared to be in his 40s. His face was concealed.
"There is an element of the farcical in that statement," said Fernandez of
Abu Mohammed's comments. "They are very removed from reality."
Fernandez said, however: "We are witnessing failure in Iraq and that's not
the failure of the United States alone but it is a disaster for the region.
Failure in Iraq will be a failure for the United States but a disaster for
the region."
Although the actual identity of Abu Mohammed remains unknown, the interview
adds to a growing body of evidence that Iraq's Sunni insurgents sense the
tide may be turning against the United States and the Iraqi government it
backs. Fernandez's comments, on the other hand, join a series of sobering
remarks by President Bush and the U.S. military in recent days.
Bush this week conceded that "right now it's tough" for U.S. forces in Iraq
and U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said attacks in
Baghdad were up 22 percent in the first three weeks of the holy Muslim month
of Ramadan despite a two-month old U.S.-Iraqi drive to crush violence in the
Iraqi capital.
On Wednesday, and again on Friday, Sunni insurgents believed to belong to
al-Qaida in Iraq, staged military-like parades in the heart of five towns in
the vast and mainly desert province of Anbar, including the provincial
capital Ramadi. Some of these parades, in which hooded gunmen paraded with
their weapons, took place within striking distance of U.S. forced stationed
in nearby bases.
The parades proved to be a propaganda success, with TV footage of
Wednesday's parade shown in many parts of the world, a likely embarrassment
for the U.S. military as well as the embattled Iraqi government.