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Saturday, November 4, 2006
Rice outlines positive signs for U.S. in Iraq
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
En route to their goal of making Tuesday’s election a referendum on President Bush and Iraq, without any visible indication that they have any workable ideas or plans for handling the war on terrorism themselves, national Democrats had a nasty little diversion last week.
Those darn ’60s and that darn 2004 nightmare emerged again last week, giving the nation another look at the ghosts of a haunting past that the party on the outs simply cannot shake.
It started with U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s assertion to students in California that “If you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”
A quick apology would have abbreviated the damage. But Kerry can’t get past that era and the Swift Boat veterans, so he stumbled through a series of “I’m-sorry-you’re-stupid” efforts that destroyed in days his prospects of ever being on a major party ticket again. The Swift Boat veterans thus have thus beaten him twice.
It was a distraction that interrupted Democrats, who were determined to convert the national angst about the Iraqi phase of the war on terrorism into a free ride to control of the U.S. House and Senate. On national security and Iraq, the party out of power offers no appealing alternative. Americans may be frustrated, but they don’t want to exit on any timetable or in any way that makes our children’s world less secure.
The opportunity arose last week to speak to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who responded to questions about Iraq and measures of success there. She is, incidentally, an example of the calm, clearheaded leader the country needs in time of stress.
“I certainly think the president is capable of mobilizing the America people and mobilizing the system to support a policy that is really, when you think about it, very much where most Americans are,” said Rice. “Very few Americans want us to simply pick up and leave. They recognize the stakes. They know it is important. They want to know that it is possible to have a good outcome.
“So I think the real goal for the administration has to be to talk about how that outcome comes into being, how . . . the Iraqis get to a place they can defend themselves and govern themselves,” Rice continued. “There are a lot of challenges because of the violence, particularly the sectarian violence, but this is also a political system in Iraq that’s maturing and in which the Iraqis are determined to take more control . . . We have a government that really wants the reins, and that’s a very positive development.
“I think most people understand that we are not going to leave prematurely; we’re also going to make the critical adjustments that have to be made as circumstances dictate and as conditions on the ground change, and we’ve made some of those. . . . There’s been a significant recalculation of how to structure the Iraqi security forces — increase the number of army forces, for instance, because the army is emerging as an institution that does have national support, rather than the police. Most people see [the police] as more local and therefore more sectarian. . . .
“Of course, the goal is to make the adjustments that are necessary, but to keep very firmly in mind the goal, which is to get this job done.”
The task now is to convey indicators of success to Americans and Iraqis. “That is really the challenge because we had some very big indicators early on.” Rice mentions the elections, the constitution, the new government. “Now you’re into, at some level, a more routine sense of governing, which makes it harder to show progress, but that is one reason that I think the Iraqis themselves . . . have set out these goals, benchmarks, objectives, like the passage of a hydrocarbons law, which would demonstrate that the oil wealth is going to be shared in the country, the passage of a law on demobilization of militias, the passage of a law on de-Baathification, which would show how people that were once associated with the Baath Party would be treated.
“They will have provincial elections, so there are important political milestones that will be coming up, and I think showing that they are putting those forward and meeting them will be very important to the American people, but also to the Iraqi people,” Rice said.
Measures of success, yes. But premature withdrawal at our children’s peril.
Jim Wooten is associate editorial page editor. His column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays.
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