By Aamer Madhani, Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Qubad Talabani, the Iraqi Kurds' de facto ambassador in Washington, spoke diplomatically of White House plans to flood Baghdad with more U.S. and Iraqi troops, but he also voiced some doubt.
The plan calls for two Iraqi army battalions from the Kurdish region to work side-by-side with U.S. troops to pacify violence-plagued Baghdad. But like their U.S. counterparts, a vast majority of the Kurdish troops don't speak Arabic and aren't familiar with the sprawling capital city.
"They are well-trained fighters and will be committed to the effort," Talabani, the Kurdistan Regional Government's Washington representative, said Thursday. "But is a Kurdish fighter as out of place in Baghdad as a U.S. soldier? That is probably true."
Talabani's concerns underscore the growing skepticism in the rancorous debate playing out in Washington and Baghdad as President Bush attempts to implement his plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq.
The dialogue is likely to become even more heated as Senate Democrats plan to open debate next week on a non-binding resolution saying the troop increase is not in the national interest. And anti-war sentiment will be stoked this weekend with protest marches in Washington.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said in a speech Friday that the House would soon "explore appropriate ways to affect the policy and strategy being pursued in Iraq," perhaps with a new vote on the use of U.S. military force there.
In his State of the Union address, Bush called on opponents of the so-called troop surge to give his plan a chance to work. Vice President Dick Cheney followed with an aggressive defense of the strategy during a CNN interview, saying that congressional critics and the media have failed to accept that the administration has achieved "enormous successes" in Iraq.
On Friday, Bush reiterated that he would move forward with his plan despite congressional opposition.
"I'm the decision-maker, I had to come up with a way forward that precluded disaster," Bush said after a meeting with senior military advisers. "I know there is skepticism and pessimism and that some are condemning a plan before it's even had a chance to work."
Iraqi parliament erupts
In Iraq, as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki attempted to sketch out the new Baghdad strategy to Iraqi members of the Council of Representatives on Thursday, a usually dull parliamentary session erupted into a sectarian shouting match. Shiite and Sunni lawmakers jeered at each other, and one Sunni lawmaker declared that the prime minister could not be trusted to disarm the Shiite militias. Al-Maliki retorted that the parliament member oversaw a sectarian death squad and threatened to arrest him.
Iraqi exiles and Middle East experts also have been dismissive of the new Bush plan. Toby Dodge, a consulting senior fellow for the Middle East at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the political component of the strategy amounts to little more than a "rearranging of the deck chairs on the Titanic."
The Democratic resolution critical of the new Bush plan is scheduled for debate in the Senate. A second, less strongly worded resolution spearheaded by Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) has gained some GOP support. Sponsors of both measures have discussed combining them.
On Friday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates spoke against the resolutions, saying that "any indication of flagging will in the United States gives encouragement" to the enemy. Several supporters of the president in the Senate have also spoken against the non-binding measures for the same reason.
Talabani said that in theory, an increase in troops coupled with a renewed focus on reconstruction and resolve by the various ethnic and religious groups to make difficult political concessions could have a positive effect. But the reality on the ground is that the various factions remain distrustful of one another, he said.
"Where we are still at is that a Kurd will never trust an Arab in power, an Arab will never trust a Kurd, a Sunni will not trust a Shiite and a Shiite will not trust a Sunni," said Talabani, whose father, Jalal Talabani, is Iraq's president.
Opponents distrust al-Maliki
A key part of the new strategy is that al-Maliki's government will crack down on the Shiite and Sunni militias that are responsible for much of the violence in Baghdad. But Sunnis and many opponents of increasing troop levels in the U.S. Senate say that al-Maliki can't be trusted because he owes much of his political influence to firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr, who heads the powerful Mahdi Army and controls a 30-member bloc in parliament.
Laith Kubba, the former spokesman for the Iraqi government and a senior program officer at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, said that al-Maliki is ready to make crucial changes, including taking on the militias, but the structure of the Iraqi government leaves him too weak to take such action.
Kubba said that the answer to stemming the violence and cutting off support to the militias might lie in engaging Iraq's neighbors.
He suggested to U.S. policymakers that they nudge Iraq to hold a roundtable discussion with all six neighboring countries, as well as U.S. and British officials. Such talks could prove to be more fruitful than a military solution, Kubba said.
The White House, however, has thus far been unwilling to hold talks with Iran and Syria, two countries which the Bush administration says have contributed to the unrest in Iraq.
"It is better to talk to them now," Kubba said, "than to have to engage them later when circumstances are even less favorable."
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amadhani@tribune.com
