Iraq Instability ‘Seems Irreversible’, Admits CIA

‘The [Iraqi] government is unable to govern,’ CIA Director Michael Hayden admitted behind closed doors.Iraq Instability ‘Seems Irreversible’, Admits CIABy Cliff Montgomery – July 19th, 2007In the early hours of Nov. 13th, 2006, members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group listened as CIA Director Michael Hayden gave a stark appraisal of that country and its government.Hayden told them “the inability of the [Iraqi] government to govern seems irreversible,” and added that the Agency could not “point to any milestone or checkpoint where we can turn this thing around,” according to both written records of his presentation and the statements of six participants given to The Washington Post.”The government is unable to govern,” Hayden admitted to group members.”We have spent a lot of energy and treasure creating a government that is balanced, and it cannot function,” he emphatically added.Later in the presentation, he offered a more qualified appraisal: “A government that can govern, sustain and defend itself is not achievable,” he stated, “in the short term.”Hayden’s strong words came a mere week after the G.O.P. had lost both houses of Congress and George W. Bush had sacrificed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as a concession to the overwhelming mood of the country.The bleak statements from the CIA director served to greatly influence the study group’s assessment of the Iraq War. According to the Post, the influence of Hayden’s presentation is found in the group’s conclusion that Iraq’s political situation is “grave and deteriorating.”As the Post pointed out, no high-ranking Bush Administration official–including Hayden himself–has “publicly described the Iraqi government in the uniformly negative terms that the CIA director used in his closed-door briefing.”If some official would do so, perhaps even more Americans would admit that Iraq was never anything more than the Bush Administration’s bout of fruitless nation-building.Note that one of the 79 recommendations which the Iraq Study Group gave to the American people was that of ceasing to prop up the Maliki government if it failed to show “substantial progress” on national security and unity.And perhaps more tellingly, it further recommended that the principal mission for American troops must change from that of combat to the training of Iraqi forces. This change, said the group report, should be made part of a plan to withdrawal combat units by early 2008.It is interesting to note that the bi-partisan study group–headed by former Bush Sr. Secretary of State James Baker, a Republican, and former Democratic congressman Lee Hamilton of Indiana–essentially produced the same analysis of Iraq as almost everyone else who bothers to study that nation.Other peoples may aid a nation, and may do what they can to curb an obvious humanitarian crisis there; but no foreign people, no foreign army can save a nation from itself.The problems of Iraq, regardless of the lies spread by the Bush Administration to invade it, are those of a social and political breakdown, and hence of a humanitarian crisis. It therefore can only be solved by means which meet that reality. It cannot be solved by American troops, warfare on an enemy not actually based in Iraq, and fruitless nation-building.But leave it to George W. Bush to run from fact and common sense as Superman runs from kryptonite. Bush declared in January that he was sending even more troops to Iraq to create a troop “surge,” which he breathlessly claimed would lead to certain victory.Bush’s false reasoning is a bit like hearing a quack doctor first declare he must bleed a patient; then after everyone sees the patient sliding to pale death through loss of blood, insist that if he just bleeds the dying patient with a bloodletting “surge”, the patient will surely have a miraculous healing.The doctor proves himself a quack because he refuses to admit the obvious fact that his “cure” is only making matters worse. Only when the doctor admits the truth does he have any hope of curing the patient.Being the quack politician he is, our liar-in-chief has essentially rejected most of the Iraq Study Group’s key recommendations. Thankfully, bipartisan pairings in both the House and Senate have recently introduced bills that would make the Iraq Study Group’s basic analysis official U.S. policy. We at can only hope they succeed.Like what you’re reading so far? Then why not order a full year (52 issues) of thee-newsletter for only $15? A major article covering an story not being told in the Corporate Press will be delivered to your email every Monday morning for a full year, for less than 30 cents an issue. Order Now!