Little has gone according to plan or schedule since the United States and a few allies moved into Iraq in 2003. The tension – and the stakes – ratcheted higher still yesterday as Iraqi leaders struggled to craft a consensus constitution and President Bush interrupted his vacation to defend his military plans and policies.
Bush went into the friendly confines of red-state Utah only to find that anti-war sentiments are growing louder there, too, as they have all month outside Crawford.
The edgy times in Iraq and now in America are no coincidence.
A draft constitution by Iraq’s Kurds and Shiites was crafted just before the midnight deadline Monday – but parliament allowed three more days in an attempt to resolve lingering issues. It was the second deadline extension.
The challenge is drafting a document that’s acceptable to minority Sunnis, who complain they were ignored during the latest negotiations. Kurds and Shiites have enough votes to push a constitution through the national assembly, but Sunni opposition could doom ratification of the document or at least embolden the deadly anti-government insurgency.
Remaining sticking points include federalism, limits on political participation by former Baath Party members and the division of powers between the president, the parliament and the cabinet. That’s a lot to resolve in three days.
Kurds and Shiites favor a federal system that consolidates their hold on provincial power, but Sunnis fear such arrangements would isolate them. Striking the right balance is crucial to satisfy negotiators now and to buttress Iraqi stability in the future.
If the stakes are high for Iraqis, they are high for the United States, too, and for the Bush administration. We hope the president will take note of public sentiment and sharpen his efforts to stabilize Iraq and end the U.S. deployment.
The president believes an effective constitution will fortify Iraq’s founding democracy and allow the withdrawal of American troops to begin next year. It appears, however, that the constitution will include elements that 130,000 Americans might not think they’re fighting for – a limitation of women’s rights, for example, and a strong role for strict Islamic law.
Bush, taking a speechmaking break from his long summer vacation, stepped up his defense of the war yesterday in the face of growing public skepticism.
From Crawford, Texas, to Salt Lake City to the halls of Congress, seeds of discontent have taken root. While hundreds of people hold an impatient vigil near Bush’s vacation ranch, a crowd of more than 1,000 gathered in the heart of Utah to challenge Bush’s war policy even as he defended it in an appearance before the ultra-friendly national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Back in Washington, one such veteran, Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Republican war hero from Nebraska, compared Iraq to the quagmire of Vietnam.
“We should start figuring out how we get out of there,” said Hagel, “but with this understanding: We cannot leave a vacuum that further destabilizes the Middle East. I think our involvement there has destabilized the Middle East. And the longer we stay there, I think further destabilization will occur.”
That isn’t what Bush had in mind when he plotted the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He expected a quick victory with relatively few casualties. He expected a liberator’s welcome, and to show off the illegal weapons of mass destruction that he said threatened the United States and the Middle East. He expected Iraqis to unite with a democratic impulse that would herald change across the region. And he expected to ensure an oil supply that would fund Iraq’s recovery and help satisfy America’s thirst for fuel.
Go down the list of expectations and you can understand Hagel’s concern about an ongoing occupation in a nation where tens of thousands have been killed, including 1,800 Americans, with no end in sight.
At the makeshift protest site known as Camp Casey, near Bush’s Texas ranch, protesters question Bush’s motivations and his administration’s execution of the Iraq war. Army Spec. Casey Sheehan, killed in Baghdad in April 2004, personifies this nation’s sacrifice as his mother Cindy Sheehan has dogged Bush’s quest for rest and relaxation. Mrs. Sheehan spoke with Bush last year, but with the war going badly she has become a persistent activist who wants to ask again why U.S. troops should be in Iraq.
Bush left his mountain bike behind Monday and hit the stump. “A policy of retreat and isolation will not bring us safety,” he told the VFW in Salt Lake City. “We’re not yet safe. … The only way to defend our citizens where we live is to go after the terrorists where they live.” Trouble is, few believe that the Iraqi insurgents are the same terrorists who have targeted America, except in response to the U.S. invasion.
Bush’s trip to Utah and later Idaho served as an escape from the crowds at Camp Casey. But Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson wasn’t inclined to allow Bush to “go on with my life,” summoning protesters to Pioneer Park where he told the crowd, “Our nation was lied into a war.”
Hagel, honored for his Vietnam service, said Sunday that “stay the course” is not a policy. “By any standard, when you analyze 2 1/2 years in Iraq … we’re not winning.”
Without some sense of order and stability in Iraq, opposition to the president’s policy will only grow louder.
