[Marxism] Dems help sink Iraqi peace offer, pledge to continue patriotic war-for-payback against Iraqis who fought US

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

June 27, 2006 Leading Democrats Froth Over Amnesty US Undermines
Maliki's Peace Plan

By MEDEA BENJAMIN and RAED JARRAR

The Iraqi reconciliation plan unveiled by Prime Minister Al-Maliki on
Sunday had the potential to mark a turning point the in the war. But
thanks to U.S. interference, instead of a road map for peace, the plan
that emerged looks more like a bump in Iraq's torturous path to
continued violence and suffering.

Iraqi government officials, anxious to reduce the violence that has
engulfed their nation, initiated talks last month with various insurgent
groups to come up with a reconciliation plan. The roots of this plan are
not new. They date back to the November 2005 Iraqi Reconciliation
Conference in Cairo, where Iraqis from different political and religious
persuasions came together and elaborated a long list of recommendations
for ending the violence.

The plan announced by the Iraqi government on Sunday builds on many of
those recommendations. It includes compensation for those harmed by
terrorism, military operations and violence; punishment for those
responsible for acts of torture; compensation for civilian government
employees who lost their jobs after the fall of the Saddam regime; the
promotion the political neutrality of Iraq's armed forces and the
disbanding Iraq's militia groups; the return of displaced people to
their homes and compensation for any losses they have suffered; review
of the de-Baathification committee to ensure it respects the law; and
co-operation with the United Nations and the Arab League to pursue
National Reconciliation.

But two of the most critical aspects of the reconciliation plan
discussed with the insurgents-the withdrawal of U.S. troops and amnesty
for Iraqis who fought soldiers but not Iraqi civilians-were abandoned
under intense U.S. pressure. The result is a weak plan that will
probably not entice a significant number of fighters to lay down their
weapons.

The withdrawal of U.S. forces is key to any peace plan, and is supported
by the majority of Iraqis. A poll taken by World Public Opinion earlier
this year showed 87% of the general population favoring a set timeline
for U.S. withdrawal. Among Sunnis, who this peace plan is meant to
attract, it is a whooping 94%. In fact, the call for a timeline has been
echoed by high level officials inside the Iraqi government itself. When
President Bush made his 6-hour trip to Iraq on June 13, Vice-President
Tariq al-Hashimi asked Bush for a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign
forces from Iraq. The following day, President Jalal Talabani released a
statement expressing his support for the vice-president's request. Then
on Tuesday, June 20, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security
advisor, wrote an op-ed the Washington Post saying that Iraqis now see
foreign troops as occupiers rather than the liberators, and that their
removal would strengthen the fledgling government.

But back in the United States, the Republicans had just spent the week
reiterating their "stay-the-course, no-timeline-for-withdrawal" mantra.
So while the initial reconciliation proposal called for such a timeline,
there is nothing at all about any U.S. withdrawal in the final version.

The other critical area watered down by the hose of U.S. political
pressure regards amnesty. The original concept was a broad amnesty for
fighters and detainees who have not "shed the blood of Iraqi civilians."
Those who attacked soldiers, whether Iraqi or American soldiers, would
be pardoned for their resistance to occupation, while those who attacked
civilians would not be. But the final document was more ambiguous. It
called for amnesty "for those not proven involved in crimes, terrorist
activities and war crimes against humanity."

Without an explicit amnesty for those who took up arms against U.S
soldiers, whom they considered foreign invaders, there is no chance of
stopping the violence. Unfortunately, it is the Democratic leaders in
Congress who have been leading the charge against amnesty, introducing
an amendment against it in the Senate even before the plan was released.


Sen. Carl Levin, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services
Committee, told Fox News Sunday that, "The idea that they should even
consider talking about amnesty for people who have killed people who
liberated their country is unconscionable."

What is unconscionable is for Democrats to use amnesty as a political
club to beat up the Bush administration in a
"we're-more-patriotic-than-you-are" election season game, instead of
recognizing it as a necessary component any serious peace plan.

In his Washington Post op-ed, Iraqi National Security Advisor Mowaffak
al-Rubaie complained that influential foreign figures were trying to
spoon-feed the Iraqis, and talked about the need for Iraqis to find
solutions to Iraqi problems. The U.S. attempt to spoon-feed the Iraqis a
U.S.-palatable version of "reconciliation" is precisely the kind of
meddling Al-Rubaie was referring to. And what you get with spoon-feeding
is pablum. The Iraqis, hungry for a hearty meal, deserve better.

Medea Benjamin is cofounder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK:Women for
Peace. She can be reached at: medea@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Raed Jarrar is director of the Iraq Project at Global Exchange. Email:
jarrar.raed@xxxxxxxxx

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