American Commanders Say Stability In Iraq Not Being Realized

George W. Bush claims to ‘listen to his military commanders’ on Iraq. So why isn’t he doing so now?American Commanders Say Stability In Iraq Not Being RealizedBy Cliff Montgomery – May 12th, 2007The top commander of American forces in the Middle East recently admitted that “democracy in Iraq” has so far failed to provide political stability to the country.Admiral William Fallon, new head of the US Central Command, said on May 3rd that there has simply been little to no progress made by Iraqi leaders to reduce sectarian violence in the country. Admiral Fallon also apparently presumes that this is an obtainable objective.”They are not moving, in my opinion, fast enough to support what we are trying to do in the country,” Fallon said to the Senate Armed Services Committee.The admiral added that American officials were trying to ensure “the leadership in Iraq understand we don’t have unlimited time, that we must move forward, that they are going to have to make these tough decisions.”Fallon told the senators that Central Command has not yet begun charting a possible redeployment of American forces from Iraq but added, “it’s certainly something we’re going to think about.”President George W. Bush makes a pretense of listening to his military leaders on Iraq. But he recently vetoed a war funding bill which would have set a timetable for a U.S. troop withdrawl from Iraq’s fruitless nation-building to begin in October; it was to be completed by April 1st, 2008. Democratic leaders have said they will continue to fight for a complete withdrawl of U.S. forces from Iraq.Fallon gingerly addressed the loaded question on the future of American forces in Iraq, saying only that his current focus is on completing Bush’s controversial “surge” in U.S. troops.”But I’ve asked them to start taking a look at alternatives for where we might want to be in the future,” said Fallon.”I envision that we will want to be and will be asked to be in Iraq for some period of time with some representation of U.S. capability, just as we do in other countries,” he added.”Now what that’s going to be, how soon we transition to what might be an enduring presence there to do the kind of things we do in other countries, I think is something we need to be thinking about right now, and start doing at least do the initial planning for,” Fallon stated.There are now 146,000 American soldiers in Iraq. That number should climb to around 160,000 by June, as the last of five additional American combat brigades complete Bush’s “surge”.Fallon admitted that if true, claims of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s office interfering with Sunni leaders in the Iraqi Army will further destroy that country’s confidence in its government.”The reports that this office of the commander-in-chief is in fact working behind the scenes to set up a parallel organization to the minister of defense is disturbing,” he stated.Fallon told senators that he, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus will “make clear to the prime minister that this kind of an operation would be severely degrading to any attempt to move forward.”The admiral stopped short of proclaiming it a breach of Maliki’s agreement not to interfere with Iraq’s security force operations–a primary U.S. condition of George W. Bush’s troop “surge” in Baghdad.Fallon though claimed Maliki recognizes that he must represent national interests; whatever the case, the Iraq prime minister must somehow handle separate Shia, Sunni and Kurdish factions who frankly despise one another.Iraq “reconstruction” has fared no better. Bush Administration hopes to rebuild Iraq has fallen far short of its targets, with the country still plagued by power outages, shortages of health clinics and clean water and poor oil production almost four years after the war’s declared “end”, according to the 232-page quarterly report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.The review says the Army has even asked Parsons Corp.–one of the principal contractors in Iraq–to explain why its massive failures should not be punished with up to a three-year ban from pursuing government contracts.The Army sent a March letter to Parsons, questioning “the effectiveness of [Parsons’] standards of conduct and internal control systems.”This is familiar territory for Parsons, which has been the focus of previous inspector general reviews on Iraq.  Parsons is best known for for “constructing” a police academy so putrid that human waste dripped from the ceilings and completing only a tiny fraction of the health clinics slated for construction in Iraq.Only 15 of more than 140 primary health-care centers have been fully constructed–and only eight treat the average Iraqi citizen. Now that’s building democracy…Similar to past reports, the review revealed that some of the worst reconstruction failures are in electricity production.”Electricity has the longest way to go,” special inspector general Stuart W. Bowen Jr. recently told the Washington Post.