21 October 2003
Senator McConnell Stresses Positive Developments in Iraq
Says media overemphasizes "bad news"
By Afzal Khan
Washington File Special Correspondent
Washington - A prominent Republican senator, who recently visited Iraq, said the international media has not presented an accurate image of Iraq because it overemphasizes bad news.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, in an address to the American Enterprise Institute in Washington October 21, said that "bad things happening" was the norm during Saddam Hussein's 35-year-rule, but mostly "good things" are happening in Iraq today. He faulted the media for not reporting fully on the positive developments of Iraq.
McConnell conceded that security in the Sunni Triangle, an area around Baghdad heavily populated by Iraqi Sunnis, may not be what "we had hoped for," but he added that ordinary Iraqi citizens today are less likely to meet "a violent end" than during the days of Saddam.
McConnell said Iraqis are playing a growing role in providing their own security, with 60,000 Iraqi security personnel in place and their numbers "are growing every day." He pointed out that the recent terrorist attacks on the Baghdad Hotel and the Turkish Embassy were foiled by Iraqi security personnel, who prevented the attackers from inflicting greater casualties.
McConnell said that 13,000 construction projects have been completed and 15,000 schools, one of which he visited in Baghdad, have been renovated.
On his trip to Mosul in the northern Kurdish region, McConnell visited the 101st Airborne units stationed there. He noted that the local council in Mosul consisted of elected officials.
McConnell said he learned from the commander of the 101st Airborne, who previously served in Bosnia, that more progress has been achieved in Iraq in six months than in more than six years in Bosnia.
Danielle Pletka, vice president of AEI's foreign and defense policy studies, related her impressions of Iraq, which she acquired during a recent research trip that took her to Baghdad, Babil, Mosul and Tikrit. Pletka said she found Iraq to be a more peaceful place than depicted on television.
According to Pletka, despite internal "bickering," the Iraqi Governing Council seemed "very positive" in doing its work.
However, Pletka warned that the "political differences" along religious and ethnic lines are in danger of being "institutionalized" by U.S. authorities in Iraq. The old divisions between Shias, Sunnis and Kurds are reflected in the quota-membership of the Iraqi Governing Council and other local government bodies, she said. This "institutionalization of a preferred interest" will cause a problem for the United States later on, she stressed.
Pletka expressed reservations about the Iraqi constitution-making process. She said the preparatory commission for the Constitution has not done much because its members have not been sufficiently prodded. She also said that any "interim constitution" pushed from the outside would not be accepted by the Iraqi people in the long run. In that connection, she pointed out that some work is being done in examining Iraq's 1924 Constitution.
In other observations gleaned from her trip, Pletka noted the absence of a central database maintained by the military that identifies troublemakers. This resulted in arbitrary arrests one day and releases of the same persons the next day, she said. She commented that the United States maintains a central military presence only in Baghdad and that U.S. rule elsewhere has been "sub-contracted" to local leaders or strongmen. She pointed out that three of the governors in Iraq are former Baathists.
Gary Schmitt, executive director of the Project for the New American Century, said the current military strategy of "big sweeps" and "precision strikes" is inadequate to fight a long-term insurgency. He said an effective counter-insurgency strategy requires precise intelligence to avoid civilian casualties. Civilian casualties alienate the "fence-sitters" in the Sunni Triangle where such insurgency is localized, Schmitt said.
Although the U.S. military may have an adequate response to the insurgency for the time being, he said a "high-tech approach to a low tech problem" will become less effective in the long run.
Citing U.S. military experience in fighting insurgencies in Central America and Vietnam, Schmitt said that to wage a successful counter-insurgency in Iraq, the military will have to work hand-in-hand with the political authorities in charge of reconstruction and economic recovery. He said the United States should increase its presence in the Sunni Triangle by deploying more troops there and intensifying its reconstruction efforts in order to win over the "fence-sitters."
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2003&m=October&x=20031021185214atarukp0.3051111&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html
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