OUR military success has been spectacular. Key phases of the campaign, such as the fall of Baghdad, came even more swiftly than the most optimistic observers believed possible. But sudden victories bring sudden dilemmas.
After several days of liberating additional cities with hardly a shot fired and taking the surrender of an entire Iraqi army corps, our forces are in the position of the dog that caught the firetruck.
What do we do now?
The good news is that Americans are the world’s best problem-solvers. We don’t sit around drinking tea and blaming history when the plumbing doesn’t work. We like a good challenge. And challenges will not be in short supply in the coming months.
But the incidents of which the media makes so much today, from looting to local resistance, are vastly preferable to the problems so many pundits predicted just one week ago, before our troops entered Baghdad.
We were warned of a slaughter of our soldiers in the streets, but the most common challenge in the Iraqi capital turned out to be how to keep people from stealing office furniture. Far from a bloodbath, we just need to get the water turned back on so folks can take regular baths.
As problems go, things could be a great deal worse.
Certainly, the breakdown of law and order is a serious matter – establishing the rule of law is essential to all other forms of progress. And we still have a war to finish, with the possibility of nasty fighting around Tikrit. But the exuberant thievery we’ve seen in Iraqi cities came in two forms.
Some of it has been common criminality, worsened by the regime’s spiteful release of criminals from Iraq’s prisons to destabilize the cities officials deserted. But there is undeniably an element of catharsis, a great blowing off of steam, in most of the looting.
People held in bondage for more than a generation are getting a bit of their own back. The regime stole from them, now they’re stealing from the regime. It’s their slight, pathetic revenge.
THIS petty rampaging cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely. But, to be clear-eyed and cold-blooded, the current spate of revenge killings against Ba’ath Party officials is not a bad thing. We cannot yet identify, let alone punish, the men who have tormented the inhabitants of countless city neighborhoods and villages. The locals are meting out justice with ropes and clubs. Ugly, yes. But it is, undeniably, justice.
And the fear these acts of retribution put into surviving party officials will keep them subdued as we begin the long and difficult task of helping the Iraqis rebuild their society, economy and state.
The aftermath of this war will be indescribably complex. Danger will haunt our soldiers. In coming months, we’ll see additional terrorist attacks, as well as eruptions of discontent and discord. Evil does not die a clean death.
Iraqi society is a pressure cooker of grudges and resentments long suppressed. Not all will be contained. After the outbreak of peace, expect the outbursts of demagogues. Before long, cynical Iraqi politicos will accuse us of favoring one faction over another, no matter how equitably we behave. Others will trumpet demagogic messages that divide Iraq’s people, rather than uniting them.
WE will make mistakes. Goes with the territory. Elements within the administration already made an embarrassing error by backing the exile leader Ahmed Chalabi and shipping him back into southern Iraq with a motley battalion of his supporters. No sooner did Chalabi hit the ground than he began, disingenuously, to accuse the United States of not doing enough for the people of Iraq in their hour of need.
Spectacularly ungrateful, Chalabi also attacked Gen. Jay Garner, the retired U.S. officer charged with getting the interim administration of Iraq up and running. Chalabi’s self-promoting message was: I should be put in charge of this country. I’m the indispensible leader for Iraq . . .
Plenty of such hustlers will pop up in the days to come.
BUT whenever things seem to be going awry – which the media will report with urgent glee – be patient. Step back and look at the big picture. No matter the disappointments we may encounter, ask yourself the same question: Are we all better off now than when Saddam Hussein was in power? No matter how nasty things get on the ground, the answer will always be yes.
For now, Iraq is in a difficult, confused stage between war and peace. Some of our troops face more combat. Others will have to assume policing functions, which are never popular with the military – although we fielded effective constabulary forces time and again, from the Philippines to post-war Germany and Japan. It’s frustrating work for soldiers, but GI Joe and GI Jane can do that mission, too.
Eventually, Iraqi police forces will be reborn. Other nations will begin to contribute to interim policing capabilities. But, for now, the burden of a peace still in its birth hours falls as squarely on the shoulders of our troops as did the burden of this war. And we must beware foolish shortcuts, such as re-empowering police elements from the old regime. We cannot be seen as reviving any aspect of the old regime’s security apparatus. In a broken country, the easy solution is often the very worst solution.
THE most important thing is to remain calm and stay on course when faced with disappointments and complaining headlines. We’ve caught the firetruck. The men and women in uniform will figure out how to drive it soon enough. Trust them.
Ralph Peters is a retired U.S. Army officer and the author of “Beyond Terror: Strategy in a Changing World.”
