Iraqi Leaders Call for Timetable on Withdrawal of Foreign Troops

Last week, the US House of Representatives held a debate on when and how to withdraw American troops from Iraq. The two sides appeared to be those who want the US to leave sooner rather than later and those who want to prop up a puppet regime at any cost. Missing from all of this is what the Iraqis want. A couple of days ago in Cairo, leading Iraqis got together to state their position. They say it is time to schedule the departure of all non-Iraqi troops from the country.

Under the auspices of the Arab League, the Iraqi communities’ leaders all sat down to discuss the matter. President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, met with the Shi’ite leadership from the government and from the Association of Muslim Scholars as well as with Sunni hardliners who may be to the insurgents what Sinn Fein is to the Irish Republican Army. Getting these guys into the same conference hall was a big deal. Getting them to agree on a declaration was even bigger.

The key to national reconciliation, which despite what Mr. Bush may believe can only be done by Iraqis on Iraqi terms, lay in the declaration’s failure to address terrorism and its recognition of a right to “national resistance.” Thus, a basis for an amnesty is in place. The declaration also calls for “immediate national program to rebuild the armed forces” which would allow the Iraqis to stand up so America can stand down.

That this declaration came out three weeks before the Iraqi parliamentary elections is no accident. It is a clear effort by the indigenous existing constellation of powers in Iraq to provide this future government with a way out of the current mess. It is a slim chance at best – there appear to be too many rejectionists on all sides for a genuine bourgeois liberal democracy to take root (although an Iranian-style theocracy might be too much as well). But if a coalition of common sense can emerge from the electoral process, 2006 could be a “year of significant transition to Iraqi sovereignty,” as the US Senate has resolved.

And if not, if the elections prove a complete disaster, there is still a lesson here for the Bush administration. Iraqis get a voice in this as well as the neo-cons in the White House. Should a freely elected Iraqi government say “Yankee, go home,” Mr. Bush won’t have much choice but to begin to withdraw the troops, even the Washington believes the new government is incapable of protecting itself and the people of Iraq. Then, all the debate in the world won’t change the fact that the troops must leave, or fight another Iraqi regime to the death.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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