Commentary

The Iraq War “Surge”

How did a Democratic sweep of congress result in an expansion of troop levels in Iraq, now called the “surge”? At the start of the year, the newly elected Democratic majorities in Congress were vowing to rein in President Bush and dastardly Dick Cheney’s horrendous Iraq war policies. We would be out of that troublesome land come time for the new president – a Democrat, they all assumed – to personalize the oval office with contrived group photos of their financial supporters, exhausted families and anonymous yokels from unsanitary diners.

Instead, we have the “surge,” and ever more of this nation’s borrowed resources are now committed to righting the wrong-headed policies of the past three years. (I have argued consistently that we cannot simply abandon Iraq and allow the situation to deteriorate further, dragging the entire region into complete chaos.)

But, with tens of thousands of additional American troops, giant walls and fences separating Shia and Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad and the mass, blind enlistment of Sunni tribes and clans to help weed out extremists, we are setting ourselves up for failure in the years ahead.

First, the massive troop presence has merely caused many, such as those militias aligned with Muqtada al Sadr, to patiently wait the Americans out. Second, forced separation imposed by physical barriers does nothing to heal the wounds that lie at the heart of the Shia/Sunni divide. And third, the blind support of Sunni clans erodes the status of the current political establishment, however flawed it may be. And, like their counterparts in the Shia militias, the Sunnis too, may simply be waiting for the opportunity to assert themselves once American troop levels decline.

The problem with the surge is that it does not address the fundamental problems plaguing Iraq. It is merely a large ‘band aid designed to stop the bloodshed during the last year ‘of Bush’s presidency. Once troop levels decline, the animosity between Shia and Sunni that was artificially suppressed will ‘spill into the streets of Baghdad, and quite possibly across Iraq’s borders.

American society is fixated with results, with little appetite for details, process or consequences. Right now, violence is ‘down, and fewer Americans and Iraqis are dying. The overall lack of interest in the inevitable sad results that arise from ‘short-sighted solutions is very dangerous. Whether Americans realize it or not, it is only a matter of time before we reap what we have sowed. Until Iraq is viewed through a lens that ‘extends well beyond the two-year election cycle, true progress will never be achieved.

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© 2007 Splendid Marbles.