Blame Where Blame Is Due

By Cernig

One of the big stories out of the conference in Cairo on Iraqi reconstruction - which will mostly been about talk and not action - is that the Iranian Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, decided to remind everyone that, long before any allegations of his own nation's meddling, the meddling of George Bush and Tony Blair was what set the whole mess going.

"The continuation of and increase in terrorist acts in Iraq originates from the flawed approaches adopted by the foreign troops," he said. "Thus, in our view, the continuation of occupation lies at the origin of the crisis.

"The United States must accept the responsibilities arising from the occupation of Iraq, and should not finger point or put the blame on others."

I have no doubt that the American rightwing will now jump to paint anyone who is anti-war and especially the Democratic leadership as aiding the great evil, Iran, as well as al-Qaida.

But Mottaki, despite any other failings he or his nation may have, is correct on this one. The occupation and its many incompetences is the root of all Iraq's troubles. Covering that simple fact has been the major motive behind rightwing attempts to associate anyone who says otherwise with "the enemy". It's all about politics - and their imperative is to spread the blame for Bush and the Republican's Iraqi quagmire around as much as possible before America votes for its next president. In the UK, the same holds true for Blair's rhetoric - which hasn't been at all successful as his party has been hammered in local elections yesterday as punishment for his involvement.

Nor is Mottaki the only one saying it. General Sir Michael Rose is probably the single most respected British soldier alive today. His opinion:

A retired British army general says Iraq's insurgents are justified in opposing the occupation, arguing that the US and its allies should "admit defeat" and leave Iraq before more soldiers are killed.
General Sir Michael Rose told the BBC's Newsnight programme: "It is the soldiers who have been telling me from the frontline that the war they have been fighting is a hopeless war, that they cannot possibly win it and the sooner we start talking politics and not military solutions, the sooner they will come home and their lives will be preserved."

Asked if that meant admitting defeat, the general replied: "Of course we have to admit defeat. The British admitted defeat in north America and the catastrophes that were predicted at the time never happened.

"The catastrophes that were predicted after Vietnam never happened. The same thing will occur after we leave Iraq."

...When he was asked if he thought the Iraqi insurgents were right to try to force the US-led coalition out, he replied: "Yes I do. As Lord Chatham [the politician William Pitt, the Elder, who, in the second half of the 18th century called for a cessation of hostilities in the colonies and favoured American resistance to the British Stamp Act] said, 'if I was an American - as I am an Englishman - as long as one Englishman remained on American native soil, I would never, never, never lay down my arms'. The Iraqi insurgents feel exactly the same way. I don't excuse them for some of the terrible things they do, but I do understand why they are resisting the Americans."

Understanding without excuses. It just doesn't fit the Republican linear narrative - which is after all aimed at painting themselves in the best possible light after their myriad mistakes - but it's the only way anything is going to get solved in Iraq.

Update It's worth noting that the current Iraqi government have their own motives for backing any attempts by the American right to muddy the waters over who deserves the blame for the Iraqi quagmire - saving their own skins. The Iraqi military isn't all that loyal to the government yet or indeed capable of saving Maliki and co's necks without US help. That's why folks like Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari are more concerned with parroting neocon talking points than actually doing anything about real reconcilliation or talking about the real state of affairs in Iraq. Zebari is one of the US-picked original puppets as well as being closely connected to the Kurdish attempt to keep the US close by as protection against Turkey. Of course, neocons can be expected not to mention this when they in turn blithely take Zebari falsely as speaking for the Iraqi people as a whole.