« Memorial Day 2007 | Main | Because it's True »

Via Hot Air, this piece in the WSJ:

One debate roiling Baghdad now concerns whether the political process is stalled because elected officials are merely inneffectual or because they are more interested in advancing their sectarian agendas than in governance. The strategy review conducted for Gen. Petraeus seems to conclude it is a bit of both. The report argues that Iraq is essentially a failed state and that the U.S. must devote far more effort to making Iraq’s ministries work, said officials who participated in the review.

"We've been too passive and deferential to Iraqi sovereignty," says one U.S. military official involved in a review of the surge for Gen. Petraeus.

I repeatedly focused on this deficiency, including this bit from an April post:

Beyond limited personnel for counterinsurgency, the biggest problem I saw in Iraq was the (apparent lack of a) relationship between the US authorities and elements of the Iraqi bureaucracy. As systems and government institutions were handed over to Iraqis, there seemed little maintenance of American responsibility or even oversight. Thus, when various Iraqi kleptocrats deny fuel and/or pay to the Iraqi security forces that Americans and Iraqis are dying to build, where is the US influence to curb corruption? To ensure the delivery of fuel? To make sure Iraqi soldiers get paid? To make sure the rolls of Iraqi soldiers are actually full when they are slated to take over primary responsibility for a given battlespace?

It's possible that American personnel I'm unaware of are feverishly working on this problem, but the results of any such efforts seemed wholly inadequate.

The security forces, the Military and Police transition teams are doing great work, and the Iraqi Army (and police, nationally, to a lesser extent) shows great promise. But without enough American engagement to set up enduring government bureaucracies that function properly, the efforts are hampered. I think it's possible. But it takes time and personnel. Almost exclusive public focus is on the violence, but these are the pivotal challenges to winning this war, because the Iraqi Army (and police in certain areas) will fight for their country.

If I were able to return to Iraq, a focus would be assessing the relationship between American authorities and these dysfunctional Iraqi bureaucracies.

It's what needs to happen, but is it too late to rebuild entrenched, politically-enabled bureaucracies? As Allahpundit notes:

The more we try to muscle the government, the more they'll try to drum up support in parliament to ask us to withdraw. That's their trump card, per Bush's thousand speeches about democracy, and they know it.

The far better strategy would have been to never relinquish control so quickly, or more importantly, so absolutely.

Posted by Bill at May 31, 2007 11:28 AM | TrackBack (0)