Far from being “seriously misspoke” the US State Department official Alberto Fernandez was setting out the absolute truth when he told Al-Jazeera viewers that in its policy toward Iraq, Washington has shown “arrogance and stupidity”.
America’s friends and allies in the region tried to warn the Bush White House that once the fateful decision was taken to overthrow Saddam, the real problem lay not in the military operations to oust the dictator but in what came after. Bush did not listen. He was caught up on the idea that US troops would be welcomed as liberators. He convinced himself that all Iraqis — except perhaps die-hard Saddam loyalists — would happily set about re-building their country as a pluralist democracy. The new Iraq would repay its debt of gratitude to the Americans by becoming one of Washington’s most faithful allies.
Three years on, Iraq has become a bloodbath for many more Iraqis than US troops. Al-Qaeda operatives, who were not present in the country under Saddam, have poured in. George Bush created a battlefield for them where they could confront the hated US head on. The country teeters on the edge of civil war. The destruction of the Baathist central power unleashed ethnic and cultural tensions now coming to a head. The disbandment of the former police and army created a deadly vacuum, which the men of violence have exploited mercilessly. The US civil administration under Paul Bremer lacked clear political guidelines. It fumbled while US companies scrambled to win lucrative contracts to rebuild the destruction wrought by US munitions, then embezzled billions with the impunity that the Democrats have pledged to investigate should Nancy Pelosi become House speaker after the Nov. 7 mid-term elections. Is there really anyone who does not believe that these tragic misjudgments were caused by arrogance and stupidity?
At least the frank admission by Fernandez illustrates that the State Department understands the complex realities of Iraq and has almost certainly done so all along. But clearly the White House from start to finish has ignored the advice of these experts. The president and his neoconservative coterie of advisers were mesmerized by their simplistic belief, that if they took out the bad guy, everything thereafter would fall easily into place. In the Oval Office, foreign policy on the back of an envelope replaced the careful study of expert views.
Within 24 hours, Fernandez was made to eat his words. He probably knew he would have to. But it is hard not to believe that this State Department official decided to risk his career by demonstrating that there has always been a far deeper understanding of Iraq in Washington than has ever been displayed by the White House.
What a pity though, that even as the Bush administration admits that its strategy needs rethinking, it is still not prepared to accept that it was pride and foolishness that underpinned its miscalculations and so silences an official who told it as it is.
