Diplomatic offensive & not US military

“ENOUGH IS ENOUGH” is the underlying conclusion of the independent panel on Iraq war, headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker. The panel which included former Democratic Senator Lee Hamilton in its report submitted to President George W. Bush and the Congress, has suggested withdrawal of all combat US troops within 15 months and launch of diplomatic offensive involving Iran and Syria to address “the fast deteriorating situation” in the violence-hit country. The American troops are totally bogged down in the continuing bloodbath and outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in his parting note to his boss has made it clear that Washington can not “win the war in Iraq”. The Bush Administration has lost credibility for its military involvement and there is fast growing realization across the U.S. and the world that Iraq adventure has been a real disaster and the brute use of military force to complete Bush Administration’s mission has hugely cost the American Government and people.
For understandable reasons, Bush can not publicly say that he had grossly erred in starting the wart. His reaction to the report that all proposals, some of which he asserts may not be practical, shall be “seriously” considered for “timely action”. The report calls Iraq situation as grave but suggests a series of measures to improve conditions. These include ultimate withdrawal of US combat troops and start of an immediate diplomatic effort involving the neighboring countries to address the problem. Of course, immediate withdrawal of foreign troops from the violence ridden country would deepen the crisis and may trigger a bloodier sectarian and ethnic war However; the presence of the US-led Coalition troops has not helped at all. In fact, major sectarian and ethnic groups want their immediate pull out leaving the Iraqis to themselves. Such elements feel that once foreign troops leave, violence could recede if not altogether terminate.
Iraq has continued to burn and bleed ever since the Bush Administration’ unilateral invasion of the oil-rich state over three years back on the pretext that the ousted regime headed by Saddam Hussein was accused of developing weapons of mass destruction. Subsequent development belied American charges Resistance forces have been trying to expel the foreign forces through a guerilla war. Suicide attacks, a new element, have increased in frequency and intensity, causing huge loss of human life. Some three thousand American combat troops have been killed and tens of thousands of Iraqis have perished. The US President until recently defended his military strategy but the independent panel wants a drastic reversal of that policy. Instead of deploying more troops to arrest the escalating violence, the panel wants Washington to start instead a diplomatic effort to address the problem.
What is required of the Bush Administration is to admit its total failure and the moral courage to tell the world that America can not win the war in Iraq.
 

Coup in Fiji

THE only good factor about the military coup in Fiji is that no lives have been lost. While this in no way makes the fourth coup in 20 years any more acceptable, it does seem to offer an easier way back to the restoration of democracy.
After over a month of rumblings and warnings, Commodore Frank Bainimarama has seized power. Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase is exiled to his distant home island and the military has appointed a 77-year-old retired army doctor as caretaker prime minister. After he had taken an oath of office, this man, Jona Senilagakali, explained rather oddly that he had accepted the post only because he had been ordered to.
Before he was taken from his official residence, Premier Qarase had called for peaceful noncooperation with the new authorities. This appears to be happening. Certainly the international community has reacted angrily with an immediate suspension of military aid and cooperation by Australia and New Zealand as well as the former colonial power, Britain. The highly risk-sensitive tourist industry is also likely to slash its bookings. Last year 400,000 people visited Fiji which itself has a population of 900,000. Tourist arrivals have boomed recently, so the loss of tourist income is likely to hit the economy far harder than during the first and longest lasting coup in 1987, when a range of economic sanctions was imposed.
It is hard to see where the coup leader Bainimarama thinks he is going with his intervention. It is however clear why he intervened now. The Qarese administration was about to pardon a former coup leader, businessman George Speight, who in 2000 kidnapped Premier Mahendra Chaudry in a 56-day attempted putsch. The irony is that it was Bainimarama’s military intervention at that time which defeated the Speight coup and restored democracy.
Bainimarama is an ethnic Fijian who believes in a multiethnic Fiji with equal rights for the ethnic Indians, imported by the British in the 19th Century to work on sugar plantations. Speight, like the previous double coup leader Col. Sitiveni Rabuka is ethnic Fijian and acted against the increasing political and economic success of the ethnic Indians. Qarese is also ethnic Fijian. It was Bainimarama’s public contention that if Speight and his fellow coup plotters were released, it would seriously damage relations between the country’s two communities.
Bainimarama may be correct that Fiji’s delicate racial amity is in danger. But overthrowing the elected government is not the way to protect it. Indeed, it might actually make things worse. Because it pins the cause of a multiethnic Fiji to an illegal act. The middle ground in Fijian politics stands to be undermined. It must be hoped that all politicians, including those with Indian backgrounds, will continue to back the return of Premier Qarese.
Bainimarama could have challenged the government legitimately by himself running for office. He may now be planning new elections in which he will stand. If they are fair, and Bainimarama loses, so will unfortunately the cause of a multiethnic Fiji.

—Arab News