Ten questions for the PM about Iraq

[Swagman]

Ten questions for the PM about Iraq
By Scott Burchill
December 15, 2006

1. Australia's Iraq policy resembles a rudderless ship at the mercy of three prevailing winds: increasingly hostile public opinion, capricious politicians in Washington and unpredictable but decisive events on the ground.

2. Given your noble intentions and the promise of being welcomed as liberators, why has the coalition of the willing faced stiffer resistance in Iraq than either the Nazis confronted in occupied Europe or the Soviets found in the East?

3. If highly trained and well-equipped Western armies are unable to quell the insurgency and sectarian violence unleashed by the occupation, why will inferior Iraqi troops be more successful?

(snip)

8. A withdrawal, you claim, would inflict enormous damage on the reputation and prestige of the United States. And yet it is difficult to see how either could be further tarnished. Subcontracting foreign policy to Congress is about as embarrassing as it gets in Washington. With a Secretary of State so marginalised she can't get an audience in the Arab world, a new Defence Secretary who concedes the war is being lost, and a President who seems oblivious of the mayhem he has caused, Washington's foreign policy stocks - domestically and globally - have plummeted to unprecedented depths.

Why do you speak as if the Unites States' image in the Middle East hasn't already been destroyed by its recklessness in Iraq?

Scott Burchill teaches international politics at Deakin University and is a contributor to Australia and the Middle East: A Front-Line Relationship (Tauris).

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/ten-questions-for-the-pm-about-iraq/2006/12/14/1165685821328.html?page=2