Rumsfeld: Iraq Must Grow Own Govt. System

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041011/ap_on_re_mi_ea/rumsfeld&cid=540&ncid=716

<snip>

KIRKUK, Iraq - After listening to two U.S. Army officers describe recent progress in battling the insurgency and stabilizing northern Iraq (news - web sites), Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld swung his chair around and faced four senior Iraqi commanders who had sat silently through the briefing.

For them he had a simple message, one that says much about the state of affairs in Iraq nearly four months after the Americans gave the Iraqis political control and three months before their elections.

"Sovereignty without the ability to protect it isn't sovereignty," he said. Iraqis must take the seeds of security that the U.S. military has planted, he said, and grow their own political and economic system.

"We can help, but we can't do it. You have to do it."

The question that was left unanswered, amid the continued violence of a brutal insurgency, is how long it will take to achieve sufficient security in Iraq to break its dependence on U.S. troops and treasure.

[Demeter]

1. The Other Question Unresolved Is:

How are you going to grow a government by killing its citizens? Dead people don't vote (not legally, anyway).

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. Didn't the Iraqis already have a government

and economic system before we went in and busted up the place? Considering the fact that the Iraqis have been around for 1000's of years before America was even discovered, maybe we should just leave them to their own devices?

[flordehinojos]

3. what rumsfeld isn't saying is that Iraq needs to grow its own government

system as long as it bows to the dictates of a bush dictatorship!
redundant? well... that is sort of how bush think goes.

[Nevernose]

4. Why not get Archer Daniels Midland to grow it for them?

[JPZenger]

5. Iraq Defense Minister Wants US troops for 15 More Years

In yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer, the Iraqi Defense Minister was quoted as saying that he feels U.S. troops will be needed in Iraq for another 15 years.

www.phillynews.com/inquirer

[gratuitous]

6. Yeah, right

The Iraqi government, as currently constituted, can't wipe its ass without written authorization from the U.S. For Rumsfeld to dress down the Iraqi commanders in front of foreign military officers is the height of arrogance. According to the story, the meeting was dominated by the two American generals giving their report, and the Iraqis didn't say a word. The pecking order seems clearly established.

Was the meeting conducted in English, as I suspect, or the native tongue of the Iraqi generals? Were there interpreters present for the convenience of the Iraqis? Were the Iraqis consulted for their opinions, or was their opinion solicited? Did they have permission to speak freely?

Rumsfeld is SUCH a martinet.