REVIEW & OUTLOOK (Editorial) State of Denial September 9, 2003 The Wall Street Journal
The Pentagon is getting blamed for every problem in Iraq, but any honest post mortem should also focus on the State Department's hostility to enlisting Iraqis as our allies. Even now, at this crucial stage in Iraq's transition to democracy, Foggy Bottom has chosen to discontinue all funding to the Iraqi National Congress under the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act. The withheld money will apparently include $5.1 million that should have been disbursed in 2001, much of it for INC radio and TV. This is hardly the policy Congress intended. The Act specifically states that "once Saddam Hussein is removed from power in Iraq, the United States should [provide] democracy transition assistance to Iraqi parties and movements with democratic goals." The INC is just that: ardently pro-American, and the only major non-ethnic, non-sectarian movement in the country today. Yet State continues to pursue what can only be described as a bureaucratic vendetta against Ahmed Chalabi, who this month sits as the rotating president of the new Iraq Governing Council. Among State's excuses is that it can no longer favor any one Iraqi group. But the U.S. should be helping any group that wants to assist in democratic reconstruction, if only to counter the foreign money flowing in to other, less savory groups. INC broadcasting would be a special help right now. The American-backed revival of official Iraqi television has gone so poorly that the station's first director quit early last month, saying he lacked the resources to compete with the likes of al Jazeera and al Arabiya. Meanwhile, those stations, along with others sponsored by Iran and Syria, continue to spew anti-American propaganda. The restoration of INC money is urgently needed, and it appears that may require a Presidential word with Secretary Colin Powell.
