Iraq war's painful paradox
Article Launched: 08/06/2005 01:56:12 AM
Mike Coffman, Colorado's state treasurer who's taking leave to serve as a U.S. Marine officer in Iraq, made a pertinent observation this week. There is no purely military solution to the problems in Iraq, he told The Associated Press. What Iraq needs is a political solution.
Coffman left unsaid how difficult it will be to find political solutions until the insurgency is curbed.
His views were reinforced by other comments from the American army officer who served as the first U.S. administrator in Iraq following the 2003 war. Speaking in Steamboat Springs Thursday, retired Gen. Jay Garner said the insurgeancy could be defused if more Iraqis had jobs and if Islamic clerics took a strong stand against the violence.
Last week was particularly bad. On Wednesday, 14 Marines were killed in the worst roadside bombing since the war began in 2003. The deaths struck hardest in the state that handed President Bush his re-election: Nine of the Marines were from the same Ohio reserve unit. The U.S. death toll in Iraq now stands at more than 1,820.
Iraqis have suffered worse. On Sunday, a suicide bomber killed 25 people, including several Iraqi Army volunteers. On Thursday, five Iraqi police officers died. Since the April 28 formation of the new Iraqi government, some 793 Iraqi security forces and at least 1,361 Iraqi civilians have been killed in 477 attacks, the AP estimates.
The real numbers may be higher as many killings go unreported, the story said. The insurgents may not be winning over the Iraqi public by killing civilians, but they are making it tough for the civilian government to function.
Grimly, top Iraqi leaders postponed from Friday to Sunday a meeting on drafting a new national constitution. It's crucial that they hold that meeting, as the constitution and new elections are the real keys to Iraq's future.
Yet the painful paradox remains that while a political solution is the real answer to the violence in Iraq, only the U.S. military seems able to respond to the insurgency for now.
Link Here
Mike Coffman, Colorado's state treasurer who's taking leave to serve as a U.S. Marine officer in Iraq, made a pertinent observation this week. There is no purely military solution to the problems in Iraq, he told The Associated Press. What Iraq needs is a political solution.
Coffman left unsaid how difficult it will be to find political solutions until the insurgency is curbed.
His views were reinforced by other comments from the American army officer who served as the first U.S. administrator in Iraq following the 2003 war. Speaking in Steamboat Springs Thursday, retired Gen. Jay Garner said the insurgeancy could be defused if more Iraqis had jobs and if Islamic clerics took a strong stand against the violence.
Last week was particularly bad. On Wednesday, 14 Marines were killed in the worst roadside bombing since the war began in 2003. The deaths struck hardest in the state that handed President Bush his re-election: Nine of the Marines were from the same Ohio reserve unit. The U.S. death toll in Iraq now stands at more than 1,820.
Iraqis have suffered worse. On Sunday, a suicide bomber killed 25 people, including several Iraqi Army volunteers. On Thursday, five Iraqi police officers died. Since the April 28 formation of the new Iraqi government, some 793 Iraqi security forces and at least 1,361 Iraqi civilians have been killed in 477 attacks, the AP estimates.
The real numbers may be higher as many killings go unreported, the story said. The insurgents may not be winning over the Iraqi public by killing civilians, but they are making it tough for the civilian government to function.
Grimly, top Iraqi leaders postponed from Friday to Sunday a meeting on drafting a new national constitution. It's crucial that they hold that meeting, as the constitution and new elections are the real keys to Iraq's future.
Yet the painful paradox remains that while a political solution is the real answer to the violence in Iraq, only the U.S. military seems able to respond to the insurgency for now.
Link Here
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 7:36 PM
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