Iraq war syndrome and Zarqawi

President Bush might have adopted caution in expressing euphoria as he had done in a speech in May, 2003 after the fall of Baghdad under a mission accomplished banner. At that time Democrats and other critics had accused the President of prematurely celebrating the end of major combat operations. However, the Republican lawmakers have expressed the hope that Zarqawi's death would undermine the Democrat argument that Bush's Iraq policy is failing. They are of the opinion that the killing could not have happened if US troops had been withdrawn from Iraq as demanded by Representative John Martha of the Democratic Party.

Zarqawi was presented as the so-called leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq to impress upon the Americans that there was a link between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan whereas it has been, time and again, proved that there had been no such link. Both the Bush administration and the American news media have raised the feats of terrorism of Zarqawi to epic, even mythical proportions. There was no car bombing, no beheading that occurred in Iraq that was not attributed to this omnipresent butcher, Abu Musab al Zarqawi.

Since the approval rating of the President dipped beyond imagination, the wide publicity of the news of killing of Zarqawi is seen as an attempt to persuade the Americans to support President Bush in his handling of the Iraq issue. Against the backdrop of ensuing mid-term elections in the House of Representatives and the Senate in November this year, President Bush has no other option but to find a strategy for withdrawing from Iraq. In this context, President Bush had two days of discussion with his top advisers, including VP Dick Cheney, on June 11-12 at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, and direct tête-à-tête with the new Iraqi cabinet of Prime Minister Nouri al-Malik in Baghdad on June 13, 2006.

Every one in the capital was amazed to hear of the secret and undeclared visit of President Bush in Iraq. This was his second such secret visit to Iraq. While he was in Iraq the annual conference of campaign for America's future, of which this writer is a member, began to debate the war in Iraq, and other fundamental issues ,which are affecting the lives of Americans. On the second day of the meeting in Washington at Hotel Hilton, Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator John Kerry and Minority leader in the House Nancy Pelosi, among others, addressed the big gatherings. They spoke with one voice that it was high time to get out of Iraq and that the Iraqis should take over the responsibility to govern their own country. We are no longer interested in listening to what President Bush has repeatedly said: when Iraqis would stand up we would stand down. Nancy Pelosi has made it clear that the Democrats are united to fight against the incompetent Bush administration and corrupt Congress.

Pelosi seemed to be confident when she said "we must lead America to a new direction." She is of the opinion that civility, honesty, accountability should be the motto of future administrations. As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, Nancy Pelosi declared amidst thunderous applause, that the Bush administration misled Americans to go to war in Iraq. There had been no evidence in intelligence reports that Iraq posed a threat to America and the people of America. No one had mentioned Zarqawi in their speeches, except Hillary Clinton whose stand on the war in Iraq was opposed by anti-war activists.

Hillary said that the United States should not set a deadline for troop withdrawal because it would play into the hands of the insurgents. She characterised Representative John Murtha's call for the immediate withdrawal of US troops as a big mistake. However, she changed her position when she advocated, on June 13, that the Iraqi administration should take the responsibility now to govern Iraq. Senator John Kerry gave a fiery speech detailing the Bush administration's deception on war in Iraq. He gave an outline for withdrawal of troops from Iraq by the end of this year, for which he submitted a resolution in the Senate.

Polls show that a majority of Iraqis want the US troops to leave, as do a majority of US voters, including 62 percent of the women queried in a recent poll. It is admittedly true that the presence of US and coalition troops in Iraq itself is the reason for violence to drive out occupation forces. Both, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, admitted at a recent press conference in Washington that they had committed a mistake by invading Iraq. While elaborating, President Bush said that his biggest regret was his use of cowboy language, such as "bring it on" at the start of the war in 2003 and in saying that he wanted terrorist leader Osama bin Laden "dead or alive". Tony Blair, however, was more substantive in his response. The Prime Minister admitted that the coalition had made a mistake by disbanding Saddam Hussein's governing party, leaving a vacuum in Iraqi government expertise and leadership. He said that he and Bush "underestimated the strength of the insurgency. But the biggest reason why Iraq has been difficult is the determination of our opponents to defeat us".

It is a pity that both invaders have come to the conclusion, after three years of bloody war in Iraq, that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake. By now more than one hundred thousand Iraqi civilians and more than 2500 American troops have lost their lives while several thousand American troops have been wounded. At least three trillion dollars was wasted on the war in Iraq. There has been no accountability of nine billion dollars earmarked for reconstruction of war ravaged Iraq. On June13 a global poll results revealed that the presence of occupying American troops in Iraq poses a threat to stability in the Middle East. The poll was conducted in Europe and in Muslim countries.

The Bush administration's endeavour in Iraq has been a deception built upon a foundation of fraud. This is reflected in the attempt to cover up the crimes committed by Marines on patrol in the Iraqi town of Haditha in November last year, which caused widespread condemnation. Abuses in Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad have eroded the credibility of the Bush administration's campaign to bring freedom from oppression and to establish democracy in Iraq.

Mohammad Amjad Hossain, a former diplomat resides in Virginia.