Even the Iraqis Want U.S. Out

Despite weeks of sectarian violence in Iraq, the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds are able to agree on one thing: they want the United States out of their country as soon as possible. And despite American military leaders’ protestations - they want it on a timetable. This was the encouraging message at the end of a recent Arab League meeting designed to broker discussion between the three sects, whose diverse interests threaten to plunge the fledgeling democracy into civil war. [The New York Times].

Iraq is recognizing that the American military presence is doing more harm than good because we are attracting terrorists to their country. They even expressed some tacit understanding for the resistance saying in their joint statement at the resolution of the conference that “national resistance is a legitimate right of all nations.”

State Department spokesman Justin Higgins said today that, “the coalition remains committed to helping the Iraqi people achieve security and stability as they rebuild their country. We will stay as long as it takes to achieve those goals and no longer.” And if this month’s Atlantic is to be believed, that won’t be for a long time. According to the December cover story, Iraq’s military is woefully unprepared to take over when the U.S. pulls out - and the Bush administration has never taken that problem seriously.

Why? Because the Bush administration never intends to leave Iraq. We don’t have an exit strategy because if this administration has its way - we’ll never exit. Instead, we’ll create a dependent Iraq. A client state that relies on us to maintain their stability in exchange for control of the oil. It’s just one more sign that this war was never about liberation or democracy, but about control of the fossil fuel reserves that run deep beneath Iraq’s sands.

What remains to be seen is how the Bush administration will respond to the Iraqis demands that their sovereignty be respected. Watch their next move, folks. If they find excuses to continue the occupation against the Iraqi government’s wishes, it will reveal a great deal about their true intentions. But with the growing dissent here at home and the Iraqi government’s expressed wish to see us withdraw on a timetable they may be shit out of luck. It looks an awful lot like Bush just lost control of his own war.

Image by David Horsey of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.