The Daily Background

Senator Barack Obama– who timidly agreed with his colleagues about Iraq decaying into civil war upon US withdrawal or a timeline at a time when the early Democrats were doing so 6 months ago– is now advocating for troop redeployment to begin within 4-6 months. His idea? Sounds an awful lot like the Murtha plan. Withdraw and redeploy:

Obama was careful not to set a specific timetable for withdrawal of troops or suggest troop levels.

“We cannot compromise on the safety of our troops, and we should be willing to adjust to realities on the ground,” he said.

He proposed redeploying troops to Northern Iraq and to other countries in the region. He recommended boosting troop strength in Afghanistan, “where our lack of focus and commitment of resources has led to an increasing deterioration of the security situation there.”

I’m glad Obama has turned around on this issue. American soldiers cannot win an Iraqi civil war. Period. And every day that they’re occupying the streets of Baghdad is a day that they are targeted by insurgents. The Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence is another problem altogether, and one that cannot be solved militarily by our Army or by any other one.

The only way that peace can come to Iraq is for three conditions to be met:

• First, American troops to stop presenting themselves as a target and a provocation for the insurgency.

• Second, the Sunnis and Shiites to learn to share political power. The Sunni minority needs to learn that they won’t have the amount of power that they had under Saddam Hussein if Iraq is to be a peaceful democracy. The Shiite majority needs to learn that they can’t rule over Iraq exclusively, and need to share power with the Sunnis.
• Thirdly and finally, the basic needs of the Iraqi people need to be met. This is not a military issue, it is a civilian one. These people need jobs, they need an economy, they need hospitals, they need power plants that can supply more than 6 hours of electricity per day, they need water treatment plants that can provide adequate amounts of sanitary water, they need a government that works for them instead of against itself.

Filed under: Iraq Related, Z-TDB Blog