John McCain on Iraq: 'We Already Won That One'

On July 15, I attended a reception in Washington DC to celebrate the
15th anniversary of the normalization of relations between the United
States and Vietnam. Geoff Millard and I spoke to Sen. John McCain.
When Geoff introduced himself as chairman of the board of Iraq
Veterans against the War, McCain retorted, "You're too late. We
already won that one."

McCain is now the second U.S. official to declare "mission
accomplished" in a war that continues to ravage the people and land of
Iraq. "[I]t would be a huge mistake to see Iraq as either a success
story or as stable," Juan Cole, Professor of Modern Middle Eastern and
South Asian History at the University of Michigan, wrote on Informed
Comment. McCain's declaration of victory in Iraq is as specious as
the one George W. Bush made after he strutted across the flight deck
of the Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003.

Gen. David Petraeus is often credited with reducing the violence in
Iraq after the "surge" of 30,000 extra U.S. troops. But the violence
continues unabated. Every few days there are reports of suicide
bombings, car bombs, roadside bombs, and armed attacks in Iraq. About
300 civilians continue to die each month and more than two million
Iraqis continue to live as refugees.

I wonder how McCain defines "victory" in Iraq. The U.S. mission there
has never been clear since the invasion in 2003. First the search for
weapons of mass destruction proved fruitless. Then it became evident
there was no link between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Finally we
were told the U.S. invaded Iraq to accomplish regime change and bring
democracy to the Iraqi people. But if democracy is the goal, there
has been no victory.

Neither Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki nor Ayad Allawi won a mandate in
Iraq's March election, which created a power vacuum. "The shortages of
power, which remain a chronic problem seven years after the American
invasion, have combined with a near paralysis of Iraq's political
system and violence to create a volatile mix of challenges before a
planned reduction of United States forces this summer," according to
the New York Times. Ryan Crocker, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq,
described the "elitist authoritarianism that basically ignores the
people."

Sunni Arab insurgents have taken advantage of the political vacuum to
mount "effective bombing campaigns" and target the banks, says Cole.
Last month, attackers in military uniforms tried to storm the Central
Bank of Iraq in Baghdad, causing explosions and gun battles with
soldiers and police. Fifteen people were killed and 50 were wounded.

Most Iraqis have less than six hours of electricity per day.
Baghdad's poorer neighborhoods have as little as one hour per day,
leaving them without so much as an electric fan to withstand the
blistering heat - 120 degrees in some places. The electricity
shortages caused thousands of Iraqis to join street demonstrations in
Baghdad last month.

The political situation in Iraq is worse than it was before the U.S.
invaded. Although Saddam Hussein was a tyrant, he nevertheless raised
the Iraqi standard of living to a respectable level. "Saddam [had]
improved the school system in Iraq and literacy for women was
phenomenal for that of an Arab country at the time," William Quandt, a
professor of Middle East politics at the University of Virginia who
has served as an adviser to the American government on Mideast policy,
said on the PBS News Hour. "People didn't go hungry in those days in
Iraq," Quandt added.

"We knew Saddam was tough," Mr. Said Aburish, author of a biography of
Hussein called 'Secrets of His Life and Leadership,' noted on PBS
Frontline. "But the balance was completely different then. He was also
delivering. The Iraqi people were getting a great deal of things that
they needed and wanted and he was popular."

Al Qaeda did not operate in Iraq before Bush's "Operation Iraqi
Freedom." Now Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia terrorizes Iraqis in areas like
Amil in Mosul. "They say you have to slaughter soldiers and police,"
Staff Col. Ismail Khalif Jasim told the New York Times.

There is a campaign of assassinations aimed at government officials
across Iraq, the Times reported a few weeks ago: "Some 150
politicians, civil servants, tribal chiefs, police chiefs, Sunni
clerks and members of the Awakening Council [former Sunni insurgents
now aligned with the Iraqi government and U.S. military] have been
assassinated throughout Iraq since the election." Speculation about
those responsible includes Shiite militia allies, Sunni extremist
groups like Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, Kurdish political parties, and
Iran.

Reconstruction of what we have destroyed in Iraq remains elusive.
After six years and $104 million spent on restoring a sewage treatment
system in Falluja, U.S. officials are walking away without connecting
a single house. American reconstruction officials have also walked
away from partially completed police stations, schools and government
buildings in the past months. "Even some of the projects that will be
completed are being finished with such haste, Iraqi officials say,
that engineering standards have deteriorated precipitously, putting
workers in danger and leaving some of the work at risk of collapse,"
the Times reported earlier this month.

President Obama is scheduled to reduce the number of U.S. soldiers in
Iraq from 80,000 to 50,000 by the end of August. But that does not
mean stability has been attained, nor does it mean the occupation will
end. The U.S. is sending civilian "contractors" - perhaps more
accurately called mercenaries - to replace them.

The number of State Department security contractors will more than
double - from 2,700 to between 6,000 and 7,000 - according to a July
12 report of the bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting. The
State Department has requested 24 Blackhawk helicopters, 50
Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles, and other military equipment
from the Pentagon. The gigantic U.S. embassy and five "Enduring
Presence Posts" (U.S. bases) will remain in Iraq. The contractors are
simply taking over the duties of the departing soldiers.

Transferring military functions to civilians is "one more step in the
blurring of the lines between military activities and State Department
or diplomatic activities," said Richard Fontaine of the Center for a
New American Security in Washington D.C.

The U.S. government has changed the language describing military
activity in Iraq from combat operations to "stability operations," but
U.S. forces will continue to kill Iraqis. "In practical terms, nothing
will change," Maj. Gen. Stephen Lanza told the Times. "We are already
doing stability operations."

Bush's war of choice in Iraq has caused 4,413 American deaths. Iraq
Body Count estimates that between 97,110 and 105,956 Iraqi civilians
have been killed. Untold numbers have been seriously wounded. By
September, we will have spent nearly $750 billion on this war and
occupation.

John McCain should examine the actual state of affairs in Iraq. It he
does, he might stop declaring victory.