The Iraqis Are Waiting to See if We Are Liars Again or Not

I read this quote a bit late, since it was up yesterday, but I wanted to share it with you. It echoes something I’ve said more than a couple times here at The Shack and in personal conversations with folks about Iraq. I think it’s perhaps the most important thing each of us needs to understand about the situation there. If we can get this in our heads, our outlook toward Iraq and our commitment to the 24 million or so Iraqis will change dramatically.

I was on the ground in Iraq for 16 months, and in that time I talked to hundreds of Iraqis. Some didn’t like us; some wanted us to leave, but most did not. What they wanted was for America to live up to its word. They wanted us to rid the country of terrorists and militias so that they could live in peace.

They were willing to help us, but they are not a stupid people. They know that if they commit to the American side and the Americans abandon them as we did in 1991, it means death for them and their families. They know this, and it is real. It is not an abstract idea for them.

Most Iraqis don’t support Al-Qaida and the militias, but when our commitment to stay in Iraq and finish the job is in doubt — as it was when Sen. Harry Reid went on TV and said, “this war is lost” — Iraqis are going to hedge their bets. They may not support the militias, but when they are betting their lives, most of them are not going to commit to America unless they are assured that America is committed to them.

If you want to know why Prime Minister Maliki has spent so much time talking with Mad Mahmoud, this is the prime reason. If we leave, he still has a country to hold together and he’s not going to simply ignore the fact that there is an entire party in this country devoted to hanging him out to dry. If we bail out on the Iraqis, Iran is fully prepared to take over and Maliki would be a fool if he didn’t make some arrangements to keep some degree of autonomy if that happens.

One of the reasons the surge is working is because it is a tangible sign of our commitment, not just because of the number of troops but because of what sort of work the military is doing. They have been doing legendary work in the cities and town, showing the Iraqis that they are willing to shed their blood for them. That goes a very long way but we can destroy every bit of good will the blood of our soldiers has bought. We have to remember that the Iraqis have very long memories. They remember the slaughter our fecklessness caused in 1991. They remember that we sat back and watched two genocides happen. They remember that when they needed us, we lied to their faces and left them to die.

They are slowly learning differently, but we had better be sure that we give them no reason at all to doubt us this time. Before us is an unprecedented chance of turn back decades of the realpolitik that led to millions of dead or enslaved Arabs. We can do it, but only if we do not make ourselves liars once more.

(via Conservative Grapevine)

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Category: Alliances and Allies, Fighting the Islamists