[Marxism] Colin Powell: "We're losing"

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Financial Times, January 12 2005
Powell gives bleak assessment of Iraq
By Guy Dinmore in Washington

Colin Powell, outgoing secretary of state, says he would like to see US
troops leave Iraq "as quickly as possible" but that the strength of the
insurgency does not allow the Bush administration to set a timeframe for a
withdrawal this year.

Mr Powell's remarks came as US officials admitted that the Iraqi Survey
Group's hunt for weapons of mass destruction was now over.

In an interview with National Public Radio broadcast on Tuesday, Mr Powell
said the US leadership had been "in almost non-stop meetings for the last
couple of days" reviewing the security problem while coalition forces were
adjusting their "tactics and strategy and deployments".

"It's not possible right now to say that by the end of 2005, we'll be down
to such and such a number. It really is dependent upon the situation," he
said, referring to the training of the new Iraqi army and police.

Mr Powell's bleak assessment, less than three weeks before Iraqis are due
to elect a parliament, reflects what advisers close to the administration
and former officials describe as an understanding in the State Department
and Pentagon of the depth of the crisis. But, they say, this is not a view
accepted by President George W. Bush.

One counterinsurgency expert said Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary, had a
"brutally accurate" picture of the situation and the potential dangers. But
a member of an influential neoconservative policy group, who asked not to
be named, said such warnings "stop well short of the president".

He said Mr Rumsfeld, criticised for the conduct of the war, had an interest
in hiding the true picture from the president. According to Chas Freeman,
former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia and head of the independent Middle
East Policy Council, Mr Bush recently asked Mr Powell for his view on the
progress of the war. "We're losing," Mr Powell was quoted as saying. Mr
Freeman said Mr Bush then asked the secretary of state to leave.

Asked to comment on this account, a senior White House official said he had
no knowledge of such an exchange and added: "The president acknowledges
there are significant challenges. He does not characterise them as
insurmountable. Others do."

Analysts are concerned that with the departure of Mr Powell and his
replacement by Condoleezza Rice, the president's loyal national security
adviser, the White House will be further shielded from dissent.

"A president is not well served when he has people in his cabinet who have
points of view but are not prepared to argue those points of view
forcefully for fear that it might leak or it looks like members of the
cabinet are squabbling," Mr Powell told Fox News.

The White House is stressing the January 30 election is just the start of a
process that is scheduled to lead to a national referendum on a
constitution by October and another parliamentary election by December.

Mr Powell said there must be Sunni representation in the government to be
formed after the elections. This reflects US efforts to persuade the main
parties of the Shia majority, who are expected to sweep the polls, to
co-opt members of the Sunni minority into the administration and the
process of drafting the constitution. US leverage rests upon awareness
among the Shia that their government is unlikely to survive a civil war
without continued US military support.

Charles Boyd, a former general who had opposed the war, said he was
dismayed at the administration's lack of commitment in fighting it.

"Our government is not mobilised for war of this size and complexity. We
are acting on a 'business as usual' format," he said.

Weapons hunt over

Although the search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction has ended, the
Iraqi Survey Group will continue gathering information to help US forces
deal with insurgents in Iraq. Charles Duelfer, the CIA special adviser who
led the search, is expected to issue a final addendum next month to his
September report concluding Iraq had no such weapons.

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