What would it take to create peace in Iraq? Why not ask Iraqis? That's exactly what a delegation of American citizens did in August 2006. The Iraq Reconciliation Plan is an "aggregation of preconditions for bringing peace to Iraq". In other words, it's not everything, but it's at least a start.
Iraq Reconciliation Plan: Ten Points
1. End the occupation of Iraq.
2. Create a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops that is synchronized with the implementation of the Iraq reconciliation plan.
3. Disband the militias created after the occupation.
4. Revise Bremer's Orders and allow the Iraqis to rebuild their army.
5. Rewrite the Iraqi Constitution.
6. Keep Iraq as one state and do not partition into multiple states.
7. Begin the promised reconstruction of Iraq. Employ Iraqis and not foreign workers or contractors.
8. Acknowledge Iraqis' right to resist the U.S. occupation, negotiate with the resistance, and give amnesty to Iraqis resisting the occupation.
9. Investigate all the crimes that were committed by the new Iraqi Government and by the occupation forces in Iraq.
10. Make a fair distribution of oil income and natural resources.
More information here and here.
6 comments:
I don't see how this would the address sectarian violence in Iraq.
Number 6 is where it gets very confusing and very challenging. I mean if Iraq is ever work out as a nation, the Kurds, Sunni's, Shites and a few Christians are going to have to WANT to make it work. My gut tells me that it just might not be there.
This whole thing is a disaster.
How do you propose to disband the Iraqi militias without a military equal to or superior to their power?
I certainly don't claim to have the answers, but I do think that if anyone does it is the people who actually live there, who understand their own country.
Read what they say about partition.
I would like the Iraqi people to take over their own security, but I don't think they have the firepower or the training to do it, right now. The only power that can plausibly do it is the U.S.
The US isn't likely to "win" simply by greater fire power. If that was the case they would have won by now. The truth is, the US created the sectarian violence and now are trying to blame it on the Iraqis, so as to wash their hands of the guilt.
Ever wonder how Shiites and Sunnis managed to avoid killing each other for so long? Sure there were tensions, but there was also a degree of tolerance. Occupation and war does have the effect of driving deep divisions between factions of the occupied peoples - this has happened in so many colonial territories. In Iraq, it's even worse. They created and armed militias to fight against the insurgency. (There are lots of news reports about the resurrection of the "Salvador option" in Iraq. You should be able to Google it for more info.)
People only stop shooting at each other when they begin talking. Adding more troops and more violence won't work.
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