Why the U.S. Failed in Iraq

Baghdad at the Crossroads

by Steve Dobransky
Middle East Quarterly
Winter 2014

http://www.meforum.org/3680/iraq-us-failure

In a quiet and sparsely attended ceremony, the U.S. flag was lowered at Baghdad International Airport on December 15, 2011, marking the official end to the troubled U.S. mission on Iraqi soil. What had begun as an undertaking to remove Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction (WMD) turned into an 8-year mission that was far more costly than most could have imagined. Looking back, few would likely say that the United States should undertake such an enterprise again if given a chance.
There is a serious need to examine the essential strategic components of Washington's initial war planning, as well as the subsequent occupation and surge, in order to shed light on the final outcome and current situation in Iraq and to plan for the future. Regardless of the messaging, the overall operation—and in particular, the surge—was a major failure in significantly altering the Iraqi equation for the better, and it laid the foundations for much worse things to come.

What began as a U.S.-led mission to end the perceived danger of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction ended quietly on December 15, 2011, at Baghdad International Airport, with the lowering of the American flag. A decade-long debate about the purpose and utility of the mission has still not concluded.

Policy Debates on Iraq

Although the Iraq war began on March 19, 2003, the debate over its advisability and rationale started well before that date. Supporters of the war were led by President George W. Bush and others within his administration who argued that in light of the terror attacks on U.S. soil on September 11, 2001, Saddam's presumed possession of weapons of mass destruction and perceived connections to al-Qaeda were too great a danger to the homeland to be ignored. As the United Nations' sanctions regime was seen to be flimsy, if not crumbling, the fear that Baghdad would ally itself with terrorists took on increasing urgency.

Holding Europe Accountable for NGO Funding

NGO Monitor said “legislative proposals that go beyond democratic transparency and accountability for these NGOs are ill advised, not enforceable, and damage Israel’s vital national interests.” I beg to differ. at least I hope they’re not right. Israel doesn’t exist to defend democracy but to defend itself. I don’t want Israel to be as “democratic” as European countries. I want Israel to defend itself from subversion, government financed or otherwise. I know that Weinstein also says unenforceable. But is it? A democracy can impose martial law or restrict freedoms to a lesser extent based on its threat appraisal. It is commonly acknowledged that the movement to deligitimate Israel and Zionism is an existential threat to the State of Israel. Surely this is enough justification for the legislation. If anyone can find a legal opinion on the matter, cough it up. Ted Belman

Gerald Steinberg in Haaretz:
Holding Europe Accountable for NGO Funding

Israelis are debating the role of foreign government funding for political advocacy NGOs, including proposed legislation that would impose major penalties on groups that support BDS and “lawfare.”
As NGO Monitor has repeatedly stated, legislative proposals that go beyond democratic transparency and accountability for these NGOs are ill advised, not enforceable, and damage Israel’s vital national interests. At the same time, the concerns about European government-funded political warfare must be taken seriously.

It's not the Occupation, Stupid

Eugene Kontorovich wrote an important essay for Commentary, Israel, Palestine, and Democracy. Here are three critical paragraphs from the middle of the essay:

The Palestinians have developed an independent, self-regulating government that controls their lives as well as their foreign policy. Indeed, they have accumulated all the trappings of independence and have recently been recognized as an independent state by the United Nations. They have diplomatic relations with almost as many nations as Israel does. They have their own security forces, central bank, top-level Internet domain name, and a foreign policy entirely uncontrolled by Israel.

The Palestinians govern themselves. To anticipate the inevitable comparison, this is not an Israeli-puppet “Bantustan.” From their educational curriculum to their television content to their terrorist pensions, they implement their own policies by their own lights without any subservience to Israel. They pass their own legislation, such as the measure prohibiting real estate transactions with Jews on pain of death. If Israel truly “ruled over” the Palestinians, all these features of their lives would be quite different. Indeed, the Bantustans never won international recognition because they were puppets. “The State of Palestine” just got a nod from the General Assembly because it is not.

Whether the Palestinian self-government amounts to sovereignty is irrelevant and distinct from the question of whether Israel is denying them democracy. Indeed, Israel’s democratic credentials are far stronger than America’s, or Britain’s–the mother of Parliaments. Puerto Rico and other U.S. controlled “territories” do not participate in national elections (and this despite Puerto Rico’s vote last year to end its anomalous status). Nor do British possessions like Gibraltar and the Falklands. These areas have considerable self-rule, but all less than the Palestinians, in that their internal legislation can ultimately be cancelled by Washington or London. The Palestinians are the ultimate masters of their political future–it is they who choose Fatah or Hamas.

Israelophobia

Fiamma Nirenstein

While vows are always made to fight anti-Semitism, its existence is not even admitted where it is found in its most frequent and obvious forms: among media and university "intellectuals;" among certain NGOs; in international institutions, such as the United Nations and its offshoots; within the European Union; in "liberal' organizations ostensibly promoting human rights -- and as a way of life, as well as a way to reinforce identity, in the Muslim world.
Anti-Zionism today, from Malmö to Qom, arises and multiplies entirely from prejudice. Most of Israel's most vicious critics have never even set foot in the state.
Such falsehoods have not only had some success; they have become mainstream. There is no protest against them from political parties, with few exceptions, or most cultural groups.

The problem of the Jews today, the world over, is not anti-Semitism but a new branch of it: "Israelophobia." The most productive fight for world Jewry and its allies at the moment would be not against anti-Semitism, even though Israelophobia is a part of it, but against Israelopbia itself.
The observances that took place in Europe to commemorate Kristallnacht, which took place on November 9, 1938, were abundant: no Jew could be unhappy about the surrounding sympathy, the public proclamation of the need to remember, the absolute rejection of any anti-Semitism, and even more, the rejection of any genocidal fervor against the Jews. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of many resolute speakers, said that the Germans must show their "strength of character, and promise that anti-Semitism will not be tolerated in any form." It was a point of view echoed by all European leaders, and it was nice to hear.

The wrong way to fight foreign meddling in Israel

Gerald M. Steinberg

Once again, members of the government coalition have introduced legislation to tax and curtail foreign government funding for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), aiming at groups involved in boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS), anti-Israel lawfare, racist activities and the undermining of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

Clearly and justifiably, after the widely critical headlines and a pro-forma vote, this legislation is going to be buried following the opposition of the minister of justice, and the concerns voiced by the attorney general. But this shouldn't be the end of the matter.

Now is the time to ask whether the prime minister and senior cabinet members, including the defense and foreign ministers, are really serious about initiating a confrontation on foreign (mainly European) government-funded campaigns against Israel led by political NGOs. And instead of problematic draft legislation, which is immediately exploited to promote campaigns that demonize Israel as anti-democratic and anti-human rights, the government should produce a coherent and potentially effective long-term strategy to defend Israel's sovereignty.

Netanyahu-Lapid fight leads to coalition crisis

GIL HOFFMAN, LAHAV HARKOV

PM, finance minister unable to agree on c'tee chairman; Edelstein to head Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Netanyahu and Lapid post-election broadcast Photo: Screen shot

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is facing a crisis inside his coalition due to disputes with Yesh Atid over controversial legislation and the chairmanship of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Because Netanyahu and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid could not agree on a candidate to head the influential committee, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein will appoint himself to the post on Wednesday.

Lapid wanted his confidant, Yesh Atid faction chairman Ofer Shelah, to receive the post, but Netanyahu vetoed Shelah. In response, Yesh Atid decided to violate agreements with the Likud and Bayit Yehudi and bring a controversial bill on benefits for gay male parents to a vote on Wednesday.
“The coalition crisis is real,” a Likud source said.
“Lapid is breaking deals because he took the committee chairmanship issue personally. He will find out things cannot be done this way.”

It's About the Settlements, Stupid

David P. Goldman
PJ Media
December 17, 2013

http://www.meforum.org/3698/settlements

Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, the misnamed occupied territories, are not the obstacle to peace between Israelis and Palestinians. They are the acid test of peace. To argue that peace is conceivable unless the bulk of the settlements remain in place constitutes stupidity or hypocrisy. Leave aside the issue of whether Jews have the right to live in the historic homeland of the Jewish people. Ignore the fact that the settlers live overwhelmingly on what was waste land and turned into gardens, vineyards, and industries which have uplifted the lives of Palestinian Arabs more than all the aid that has passed through (or rather stuck to) the fingers of the kleptocrats of the PA. Leave aside also Israel's requirement for defensible borders: that is a critical issue but not identical to the continued presence of settlements.

Accepting the settlements is the sine qua non of any viable peace agreement. It does Israel no good to defend Israel's right to exist but to condemn the settlers, as does Alan Dershowitz, not to mention the leaders of liberal Jewish denominations.
I believe in land for peace. That is a tautology: In territorial disputes the two main variables always are land and peace. But that implies more land for more peace and less land for less peace. The Palestinian Arabs had an opportunity to accept an Israeli state on just 5,500 square miles of land in 1947, and refused to do so. The armistice lines of 1948 left Israel with 8,550 square miles, and the Arab side refused to accept that. In 1967 Israel took an additional 5,628 square miles of land in dispute under international law; Jordan does not claim it, and no legal Arab authority exists to claim it. It is not "illegally occupied." It has never been adjudicated by a competent authority.

Saudi prince to Obama: You’ve made a mess of the Mideast

Cheryl K. Chumley

A Saudi prince sent a harsh message to President Obama and his administration, saying White House waffling and indecision has compromised the ability of the United States to nail down a peace pact between Israel and the Palestinians.
“We’ve seen several red lines put forward by the president, which went along and became pinkish as time grew, and eventually ended up completely white,” said Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former intelligence head of Saudi Arabia, in The New York Times. “When that kind of assurance comes from a leader of a country like the United States, we expect him to stand by it. There is an issue of confidence.”
Specifically, the prince blasted Mr. Obama for reneging on promises — a habit that’s been shown by recent polls about Obamacare to plague the president with constituents in the United States, too. As far as international relations go, the prince said Mr. Obama needs to step up his game and do what he vows.
With allies, “you should be able to give them the assurance that what you say is going to be what you do,” the prince said, The Times reported.

More Slaughter in Muslim Lands; Media, Governments Silent

 Raymond Ibrahim

"Don't they know that the Koran orders us to slit the throat of whoever is disrespectful to Allah's beloved prophet?" — Representative of Jamaat ud Dawa.
Although Christians are habitually killed in Muslim countries, as this series attests, the U.S. government rarely condemns the practice or even acknowledges it.

Two of the most tragic Islamic attacks on Christians, killing several women and children, took place in the month of October, one in Syria, another in Egypt.
On October 21 in Syria, U.S.-supported Islamist rebels invaded and occupied the ancient Christian settlement of Sadad for over a week, until ousted by the Syrian army. What took place that week was "the largest massacre of Christians in Syria," in the words of Orthodox Archbishop Alnemeh. Among other things, 45 Christians—including women and children—were killed, several were tortured to death; mass graves were discovered; all of Sadad's 14 churches, some ancient, were ransacked and destroyed; the bodies of six people from one family, ranging from ages 16 to 90, were found at the bottom of a well (an increasingly common fate for "subhuman" Christians).

'American Studies' group to boycott Israel

Leo Rennert

The American Studies Association (ASA) is suddenly grabbing headlines for voting to support an academic boycott of Israel.  Why a boycott?  Because ASA wants to be known as a paragon of human rights and views Israel as a gross violator of same.  ASA believes the worst about Israel's treatment of Palestinians - whether it's actually so or not.
But aren't there somewhere on this planet other countries that are far more egregious human-rights violators, including some in close vicinity of Israel?  Well, that may be so, concedes Curtis Marez, ASA's president and associate professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, San Diego, "but one has to start somewhere."  So why start by flogging Israel?  Marez explains that the reason ASA decided to blacken only Israel is that Palestinian groups asked that it join the anti-Israel boycott, but no such request came from any other country.


This is what parades as logic and fairness in academe today.

Decorated Marine Faces Loss of Career for Sounding Alarm about Taliban

MICHAEL DALY December 17, 2013

Maj. Jason Brezler's warnings about an Afghan police chief and his ‘tea boys' went unaddressed, and three Marines were slain. One year later, the Marines are taking action-against him.
More than a year after three Marines were shot to death on their base in an insider attack by an Afghan police chief's "tea boy," there is still no official explanation for why a warning that could well have prevented the tragedy seems to have gone unheeded.
There is also no explanation for why the police chief was allegedly allowed to sexually assault children with apparent impunity on an American military facility.
But authorities have taken action against one person they should be praising, the 32-year-old Marine Reserve officer who issued the warning about the police chief and his crimes.

Hadassah Nurses Deliver Baby on Icy Roadside - Israel‏

elbrenner@mac.com

The century’s largest winter storm in Israel is over, but roads are still icy.
The roads to Jerusalem are closed at night and even sometimes during the day.
You can imagine what fearsome traffic jams materialize.


So it was this morning on Road 443 which leads from Modiin to Northern
Jerusalem, including our  Mount Scopus hospital. The road was jammed. Traffic
wasn’t moving.  Dafna Cohen, Hadassah Mount Scopus head nurse in pediatrics,
was stuck at one of the crossroads.  She heard a police siren and saw cars
pulled over on the side of the road. Cohen could see someone was in trouble.
She, too, pulled over, “I’m a nurse from Hadassah Hospital” she said. “Can I
help”

Kerry forces Israel’s moment of decision

Carline Glick

There was a ghoulish creepiness to US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Israel last week. Here we were, beset by the greatest winter storm in a hundred years. All roads to Jerusalem were sealed off. Tens of thousands of Jerusalemites and residents of surrounding areas were locked down in their houses, without power, heat, telephone service or water.

And all of the sudden, out of nowhere, Kerry appeared. As Hamas-ruled Gazans begged the supposedly hated IDF to come and save them from the floods, and as Israel took over rescue operations for stranded Palestinians living under the rule of the PLO ’s gangster kleptocracy in Judea and Samaria, here was Kerry, telling us that we’d better accept the deal he plans to present us next month, or face the wrath of the US and Europe, and suffer another Palestinian terror war.

What is going on? Why can’t Kerry leave Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the rest of the country alone, even for a week, in the middle of a blizzard of biblical proportions? According to leaks from the now five month old negotiations, after 20 rounds of talks, the Palestinians have not budged from the positions they have held to for the past 50 years.

Harvard Exams Interrupted by Bomb Threat

Lori Lowenthal Marcus

Harvard University students were gearing up for exams when students received a university alert that a bomb threat had been received. Students were instructed to immediately evacuate four university buildings: Emerson Hall, Thayer Hall and Sever Hall, as well as the Science Center.

 Harvard University Police Department received an email tip that bombs had been placed in those four buildings. The Harvard Police contacted the Cambridge Police Department and state and local explosives experts were called in. Exams were cancelled, police and bomb squads arrived on campus, exams in those buildings were cancelled and the famous Harvard Yard was closed down. 

THE ISLAMIC STATE OF IRAQ AND AL-SHAM

Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi

This article examines the rise of the al-Qa’ida-aligned group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) since its announcement in April 2013 until September 2013. It focuses in particular on its military operations and its relations with other rebel groups. The article concludes by examining what the future holds for ISIS on the whole.

INTRODUCTION: THE IDEOLOGY

The group under consideration in this paper–like al-Qa’ida central under Usama bin Ladin and subsequently Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Tehrik-e-Taliban of Waziristan, and others–is part of what one might term the “global jihad” movement. This movement is not a coherent whole organized by a strict central hierarchy, but rather one defined by a shared ideology. This ideology aims firstly to reestablish a system of governance known as the Caliphate–an Islamic form of government that first came into being after Muhammad’s death under Abu Bakr and saw its last manifestation in the Ottoman Empire–across the entire Muslim world. From there, the intention is to spread the Caliphate across the entire world.[1]

This worldview is one of many answers formulated to answer a question posed in the wider Muslim world: Namely, what has been the cause of decline of the Muslim world–and the Arab world in particular–in contrast to the apparent success of the West since the nineteenth century?

5 Technologies that Keep the IDF on the Cutting Edge

IDF Blog

Groundbreaking technologies are advancing the IDF’s capabilities and eliminating threats. With these advanced tools in the hands of its soldiers, the IDF protects the people of Israel.
In a major speech last October, IDF Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz described the wide-ranging threats facing Israel in the near future. According to the Chief of Staff, the IDF could be forced to contend with anything from missile strikes on military sites to large-scale battles and cyber attacks that would paralyze Israel’s infrastructure.

But after reviewing a range of doomsday scenarios, Lt. Gen. Gantz concluded his address with a message of hope and optimism. “We are strong enough to face every challenge, the expected and the unexpected,” he said. “It is our duty to invest in whatever is necessary to provide the response, even by looking years into the future.”

Innovators throughout the IDF have heeded the Chief of Staff’s message, developing technologies that keep civilians safe and allow Israel to strike accurately far from its borders. In every sector, cutting-edge technologies are advancing Israel’s capabilities and eliminating threats, keeping the IDF steps ahead of its enemies.

Tova Dvorin

Professor Yisrael Aumann

Flash 90

The Executive Committee of the University of Haifa has refused to award an honorary doctorate to Professor Israel (Robert) Aumann due to his pro-Israel politics, Ha'aretz reported Sunday.
Professor Aumann won the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics in 2005 for his work on conflict and cooperation through game theory analysis. However, despite his intellectual prowess - he is a noted professor from the Center of Rationality at Israel's top-level Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he is a visiting professor at Stony Brook University, and is one of the founders of the Center for Game Theory and Economics there - the University has decided to reject the Professor for political reasons.
At a hearing to discuss the candidacy last week, the director, Ami Ayalon, agreed with other board members not to award the title, citing concerns that "the Professor's politics are not in line with the University's values."
Among the board's concerns were remarks by Aumann in 2010 stating that "the most sensible solution" to the Israeli-Arab conflict is "a Jewish state and an Arab state, where the Jewish state is settled by Jews and the Arab state is settled by Arabs."

Iran as a Threat for Arab states

Dr. Ehud Eilam compares and examines present-day Iran to past ambitions in the Middle East "A breach in what was the Iraqi wall would be a cause for concern among the Arab world, particularly if Iran were to have a nuclear arsenal."

Ehud Eilam

In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein’s ambitions to make Iraq a dominant power in the Middle East made him not much different than present-day Iran. Iraq was an Arab country, but it still presented a threat to its Arab neighbors, particularly those in the Gulf. However, in 1980 Saddam did not send his military south against other Arab states, as he did a decade later in 1990, but east, against their common rival, Iran; yet, that was not necessarily what the other Arab states wanted. They could have suspected that an Iraqi victory over Iran would be exploited to establish Iraq’s position in the Middle East at the expense of other Arab states, including those that supported Iraq in the war against Iran.

Will Israel Attack Iran?

PJ Editors 

The recent deal struck between the West and Iran that is supposed to limit Iran’s nuclear program has put Israel in a difficult position. Its major ally — the U.S. — has chosen a diplomatic route to prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb. But the deal will only last six months and there is no guarantee diplomacy will work.
As Norman Podhoretz wrote in the Wall Street Journal ^[1] recently, a “new consensus” on Iran has emerged that posits the notion that the only thing worse than Iran getting the bomb is taking military action to prevent it.

Adherents of the new consensus would have us believe that only two choices remain: a war to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons or containment of a nuclear Iran—with containment the only responsible option. Yet as an unregenerate upholder of the old consensus, I remain convinced that containment is impossible, from which it follows that the two choices before us are not war vs. containment but a conventional war now or a nuclear war later.

Jerusalem, winter wonderland and capital under siege

Snow blankets Jerusalem and the surrounding area, causing road closures and traffic jams throughout the city and on roads entering and exiting the capital • IEC declares state of emergency • The worst of the chilly weather system expected Friday.

Israel Hayom Staff

A Jerusalem light rail train pushes through the snow on Thursday | Photo credit: Lior Mizrahi

<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 >>

Fifty centimeters (19.7 inches) of snow fell in Jerusalem on Thursday and Friday (as of press time), leading to a state of emergency in the city, to which entrance and exit roads have been closed.

"I've heard of making guests welcome and feeling at home. This is as far as I've seen anyone go, giving a nice New England snow storm," said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday in Jerusalem, where he had arrived to continue peace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.