'Yankee go home'

by David Grand
May 20, 2004

We've been told that more than a few times in the past by countries who resented our presence and intrusion in their domestic affairs. So I wasn't totally surprised when the U.S. Governor of Iraq L. Paul Bremer indicated to regional Iraqi officials that the United States would high-tail it out of Iraq if we were told that we were no longer welcomed there by the new interim government, or as the result of the "free" election to be held in January.

But whether they'd have the right to remove the "welcome mat" was immediately challenged by Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman in his testimony before the House International Relations Committee, saying that "the Iraqi interim constitution and U.N. resolution 1511 gives us the authority to remain there."

However, when pressed for an answer as to whether we will leave Iraq if asked to, Grossman eventually said "yes" through clenched teeth. But right after the hearing, he suddenly reversed his earlier admission: "The new Iraqi government doesn't have the authority to evict American forces from Iraq ." He must've got a call from the White House (maybe from Karl Rove himself) scolding him for not sticking to the approved script when testifying.

Now, at first I took Bremer's offer with a "mountain of salt," given that he knew full-well there was no way that our chosen handmaidens in the interim government would ever tell us to get lost, and risk losing their cushy jobs and the fat paychecks we'll be dishing out. As that Russian saying goes, "when money talks the truth is silent."

The overriding question, as I see it, is how Americans would react to our pulling up stakes and leaving it up to the Iraqis to deal with their internal problems and in developing a united army to maintain stability. For what recent polls are worth, 80 percent favor us leaving if requested to; and with 69 percent believing the war isn't worth the cost, not to mention the 82 percent of Iraqis who don't want us there as occupiers. Guess I'll go to my grave without ever being polled. But as I've learned, one problem in being old is that you know all the answers but no one asks you the questions.

On the downside, however, our withdrawal would no doubt set the wheels in motion for an all-out civil war, split down secular and religious lines. The Shiite and Suni Muslims hate each other's guts and would never accept playing second fiddle to one another, nor would the Kurds accept getting the short end of the stick once again.

And Bremer now putting senior members of Saddam's Baath party in public service positions-a year after barring them from power and stripping them of their voting rights and income-will only further inflame the anti-American feelings of the Shiites, who suffered over 300,000 deaths at the hands of the Baathist generals in 1991, as well as the Kurds who were gassed by the thousands. For them to ever get over such merciless treatment would be like us forgetting to remember Pearl Harbor.

Yes, while it's true that Falluja, once the hotbed of insurgency, is now as quite as a ghost town ever since American forces withdrew and turned over the security of that city to the "Falluja Brigade" led by a former Republican Guard general, many Iraqis are as nervous as a coyote in a pen over the possibility of military rule being restored in the country. Why, even the insurgents in Falluja who were previously killing our soldiers are eagerly joining that brigade in response to our offers of cash, regular meals and brand new uniforms. Moral: If you can't beat 'em, buy them.

In sum, I don't believe we'd be "cutting and running" if we began bringing our troops home with all due haste after the baton is passed to the provisional government, albeit with our continuing to support their rebuilding efforts and equipping its army. We wouldn't be "losing face" in the eyes of the world or be dishonoring those who've made the ultimate sacrifice or who lost limbs and sight.

On the contrary, I'm certain our standing in the world (particularly among Arab countries) would soar sky-high overnight; and with historians saying we were right in freeing Iraq from that tyrannical regime, in helping to lay the groundwork for a stable, democratic society, and in rightly proclaiming as we withdrew: "Mission accomplished."