Hayden must be getting on in years by now!
Cheers, Ken Hanly
U.S. Retreat from Iraq? The Secret Story
By Tom Hayden
Special to the Huffington Post
11/22/06 "HP" -- - - According to credible Iraqi
sources in London and Amman, a secret story of
Americas diplomatic exit strategy from Iraq is
rapidly unfolding. The key events include:
First, James Baker told one of Saddam Husseins
lawyers that Tariq Aziz, former deputy prime minister,
would be released from detention by the end of this
year, in hope that he will negotiate with the US on
behalf of the Baath Party leadership. The discussion
recently took place in Amman, according to the Iraqi
paper al-Quds al-Arabi.
Second, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice personally
appealed to the Gulf Cooperation Council in October to
serve as intermediaries between the US and armed Sunni
resistance groups [not including al Qaeda],
communicating a US willingness to negotiate with them
at any time or place. Speaking in early October, Rice
joked that if then-Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld heard me now, he would wage a war on me
fiercer and hotter than he waged on Iraq, according
to an Arab diplomat privy to the closed session.
Third, there was an unprecedented secret meeting of
high-level Americans and representatives of a primary
component of the Iraqi resistance two weeks ago,
lasting for three days. As a result, the Iraqis agreed
to return to the talks in the next two weeks with a
response for the American side, according to Jordanian
press leaks and al-Quds al-Arabi.
Fourth, detailed email transmissions dated November 16
reveal an active American effort behind the scenes to
broker a peace agreement with Iraqi resistance
leaders, a plot that could include a political coup
against Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Fifth, Bush security adviser Stephen Hadley carried a
six-point message for Iraqi officials on his recent
trip to Baghdad: include Iraqi resistance and
opposition leaders in any initiative towards national
reconciliation;general amnesty for the armed
resistance fighters;
dissolve the Iraqi commission charged with banning the
Baath Party; start the disbanding of militias and
death squads;
cancel any federalism proposal to divide Iraq into
three regions, and combine central authority for the
central government with greater self-rule for local
governors; distribute oil revenues in a fair manner to
all Iraqis, including the Sunnis whose regions lack
the resource.
Prime Minister Al-Maliki was unable to accept the
American proposals because of his institutional
allegiance to Shiite parties who believe their
historic moment has arrived after one thousand years
of Sunni domination. That Shiite refusal has
accelerated secret American efforts to pressure,
re-organize, or remove the elected al-Maliki regime
from power.
The Back Story
Underlying these developments are three American
concerns: first, the deepening quagmire and sectarian
strife on the battlefield; second, the mid-year
American elections in which voters repudiated the war;
and third, the strategic concern that the new Iraq has
slipped into the orbit of Iran. It remains to be seen
if Iran will exercise influence on its Shiite allies
in Iraq{the Grand Ayatollah Sistani was born in Iraq,
and the main Shiite bloc was created in Iran by Iraqi
exiles]. But that is the direction being taken by
Bakers Iraq Study Group and former CIA director John
Deutch in a New York Times editorial. The principal US
track, in addition to a declared withdrawal plan,
should be to work towards a hands-off policy by Iran,
at least for an interval, according to Deutch.
This possible endgame has been in the making for some
time. Even two years ago, US officials were probing
contacts with Iraqi resistance groups distinct from
al-Qaeda. Recent polls indicate sixty percent Iraqi
support for armed resistance against the United
States, while approximately eighty percent of Iraqis
support some timetable for withdrawal, an
indispensable indicator for Iraqi insurgents laying
down some arms.
Even before the 2003 US invasion, peace groups like
Global Exchange and the newly-forming Code Pink sent
delegations to create people-to-people relations with
Iraqi opponents of the occupation and members of civil
society. This writer met with Iraqi exiles in London,
who suggested further meetings in Amman. Those
contacts were facilitated in 2005 by a former
Jordanian diplomat, Munther Haddadin, who supported
open-ended discussions with Iraqis in exile, Jordans
Crown Prince Hassan, and with intermediaries from the
insurgency who made the dangerous 15-hour drive from
Baghdad to Amman on more than one occasion. A reporter
for the San Francisco Chronicle, Rob Collier, also
interviewed Iraqi insurgents and was helpful in
providing contacts. Earlier this year, an American
peace delegation, including Cindy Sheehan, found
themselves in two days of meetings with Iraqis of
every political stripe. US Congressman Jim McDermott
[D-Washington] was crucial in making these contracts
possible. Dal Lamagna, a self-described frustrated
peacemaker made both trips to Amman, and provided
this writer with videos and transcripts of the
interviews on which this article is based.
It must be emphasized that there is no reason to
believe that these US gestures are anything more than
probes, in the historic spirit of divide-and-conquer,
before escalating the Iraq war in a Baghdad offensive.
Denial plausibility aka Machiavellian secrecy
remains American security policy, for understandable
if undemocratic reasons.
Yet Americans who voted in the November election
because of a deep belief that a change of government
in Washington might end the war have a right to know
that their votes counted. The US has not abandoned its
entire strategy in Iraq, but is offering significant
concessions without its own citizens knowing. #
Tom Hayden was a leader of the anti-war movement
during the Vietnam era. He has enlisted as a
chronicler of the governments plans for Iraq, and a
self-appointed internet strategist for the anti-war
movement since 2003. He can be contacted at
www.tomhayden.com
