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The Iraqi reconciliation plan unveiled
by Prime Minister Al-Maliki on Sunday had the potential to mark
a turning point the in the war. But thanks to U.S. interference,
instead of a road map for peace, the plan that emerged looks
more like a bump in Iraq's torturous path to continued violence
and suffering.
Iraqi government officials,
anxious to reduce the violence that has engulfed their nation,
initiated talks last month with various insurgent groups to come
up with a reconciliation plan. The roots of this plan are not
new. They date back to the November 2005 Iraqi Reconciliation
Conference in Cairo, where Iraqis from different political and
religious persuasions came together and elaborated a long list
of recommendations for ending the violence.
The plan announced by the Iraqi
government on Sunday builds on many of those recommendations.
It includes compensation for those harmed by terrorism, military
operations and violence; punishment for those responsible for
acts of torture; compensation for civilian government employees
who lost their jobs after the fall of the Saddam regime; the
promotion the political neutrality of Iraq's armed forces and
the disbanding Iraq's militia groups; the return of displaced
people to their homes and compensation for any losses they have
suffered; review of the de-Baathification committee to ensure
it respects the law; and co-operation with the United Nations
and the Arab League to pursue National Reconciliation.
But two of the most critical
aspects of the reconciliation plan discussed with the insurgents-the
withdrawal of U.S. troops and amnesty for Iraqis who fought soldiers
but not Iraqi civilians-were abandoned under intense U.S. pressure.
The result is a weak plan that will probably not entice a significant
number of fighters to lay down their weapons.
The withdrawal of U.S. forces
is key to any peace plan, and is supported by the majority of
Iraqis. A poll taken by World Public Opinion earlier this year
showed 87% of the general population favoring a set timeline
for U.S. withdrawal. Among Sunnis, who this peace plan is meant
to attract, it is a whooping 94%. In fact, the call for a timeline
has been echoed by high level officials inside the Iraqi government
itself. When President Bush made his 6-hour trip to Iraq on June
13, Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi asked Bush for a timeline
for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq. The following
day, President Jalal Talabani released a statement expressing
his support for the vice-president's request. Then on Tuesday,
June 20, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security advisor,
wrote an op-ed the Washington Post saying that Iraqis now see
foreign troops as occupiers rather than the liberators, and that
their removal would strengthen the fledgling government.
But back in the United States,
the Republicans had just spent the week reiterating their "stay-the-course,
no-timeline-for-withdrawal" mantra. So while the initial
reconciliation proposal called for such a timeline, there is
nothing at all about any U.S. withdrawal in the final version.
The other critical area watered
down by the hose of U.S. political pressure regards amnesty.
The original concept was a broad amnesty for fighters and detainees
who have not "shed the blood of Iraqi civilians." Those
who attacked soldiers, whether Iraqi or American soldiers, would
be pardoned for their resistance to occupation, while those who
attacked civilians would not be. But the final document was more
ambiguous. It called for amnesty "for those not proven involved
in crimes, terrorist activities and war crimes against humanity."
Without an explicit amnesty
for those who took up arms against U.S soldiers, whom they considered
foreign invaders, there is no chance of stopping the violence.
Unfortunately, it is the Democratic leaders in Congress who have
been leading the charge against amnesty, introducing an amendment
against it in the Senate even before the plan was released.
Sen. Carl Levin, the top Democrat
on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Fox News Sunday
that, "The idea that they should even consider talking about
amnesty for people who have killed people who liberated their
country is unconscionable."
What is unconscionable is for
Democrats to use amnesty as a political club to beat up the Bush
administration in a "we're-more-patriotic-than-you-are"
election season game, instead of recognizing it as a necessary
component any serious peace plan.
In his Washington Post op-ed,
Iraqi National Security Advisor Mowaffak al-Rubaie complained
that influential foreign figures were trying to spoon-feed the
Iraqis, and talked about the need for Iraqis to find solutions
to Iraqi problems. The U.S. attempt to spoon-feed the Iraqis
a U.S.-palatable version of "reconciliation" is precisely
the kind of meddling Al-Rubaie was referring to. And what you
get with spoon-feeding is pablum. The Iraqis, hungry for a hearty
meal, deserve better.
Medea Benjamin is cofounder of Global Exchange and
CODEPINK:Women for Peace. She can be reached at: medea@globalexchange.org
Raed Jarrar is director of the Iraq Project at
Global Exchange. Email: jarrar.raed@gmail.com
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