Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Miami Herald
May 14, 2007
Iraqi political feuding is complicating President Bush's strategy for stabilizing Iraq.
By Jonathan S. Landay and Nancy A. Youssef
Four months after President Bush launched his new Iraq strategy, the U.S. troop buildup there is proceeding apace, but feuding among Iraqi politicians and power brokers threatens to block the political reforms on which the success of the plan depends.
U.S. officials warn that the longer the impasse persists over laws on provincial elections and the distribution of Iraq's oil wealth among Shiite Muslims, Kurds and Sunnis, the greater the risk that the surge of 30,000 more U.S. troops into Baghdad, which is intended to provide a security umbrella for political reforms, will be for naught.
Until the political feuding ends, ''we are just maintaining the status quo,'' said a U.S. military official who requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly.
Some U.S. and Iraqi politicians already are predicting that the Iraqi parliament won't pass any key legislation by September, when Gen. David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, is supposed to assess the success of the surge.
''To me, the success of the surge is measured by whether it will produce a political settlement,'' Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told McClatchy Newspapers.
"There is no evidence that I can see that the surge is producing or will produce a political solution.''
Indeed, some U.S. military officials are worried that Iraqi political feuding could demoralize the American troops who are fighting to buy Iraqis time to resolve these key issues.
''It is a huge irritant,'' the military official said. "What psychological effect does [a stalemate] have on our troops?''
Bush, his top lieutenants and their Republican allies in Congress insist that it's too early to judge the new strategy, which the president dubbed ''The New Way Forward'' in a Jan. 10 televised address to the nation.
''The job now is to persevere in every area of operations,'' Vice President Dick Cheney told the crew of the USS John C. Stennis when he visited the aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf on Friday.
Yet Bush seemed to concede on Thursday that the national reconciliation plan was in trouble when he announced his readiness to negotiate with Democratic lawmakers on including benchmarks for Iraqi leaders in a war-financing bill.
Leila Fadel contributed to this report from Baghdad.
May 14, 2007
Iraqi political feuding is complicating President Bush's strategy for stabilizing Iraq.
By Jonathan S. Landay and Nancy A. Youssef
Four months after President Bush launched his new Iraq strategy, the U.S. troop buildup there is proceeding apace, but feuding among Iraqi politicians and power brokers threatens to block the political reforms on which the success of the plan depends.
U.S. officials warn that the longer the impasse persists over laws on provincial elections and the distribution of Iraq's oil wealth among Shiite Muslims, Kurds and Sunnis, the greater the risk that the surge of 30,000 more U.S. troops into Baghdad, which is intended to provide a security umbrella for political reforms, will be for naught.
Until the political feuding ends, ''we are just maintaining the status quo,'' said a U.S. military official who requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly.
Some U.S. and Iraqi politicians already are predicting that the Iraqi parliament won't pass any key legislation by September, when Gen. David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, is supposed to assess the success of the surge.
''To me, the success of the surge is measured by whether it will produce a political settlement,'' Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told McClatchy Newspapers.
"There is no evidence that I can see that the surge is producing or will produce a political solution.''
Indeed, some U.S. military officials are worried that Iraqi political feuding could demoralize the American troops who are fighting to buy Iraqis time to resolve these key issues.
''It is a huge irritant,'' the military official said. "What psychological effect does [a stalemate] have on our troops?''
Bush, his top lieutenants and their Republican allies in Congress insist that it's too early to judge the new strategy, which the president dubbed ''The New Way Forward'' in a Jan. 10 televised address to the nation.
''The job now is to persevere in every area of operations,'' Vice President Dick Cheney told the crew of the USS John C. Stennis when he visited the aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf on Friday.
Yet Bush seemed to concede on Thursday that the national reconciliation plan was in trouble when he announced his readiness to negotiate with Democratic lawmakers on including benchmarks for Iraqi leaders in a war-financing bill.
Leila Fadel contributed to this report from Baghdad.