Five years into the war, America’s battle for success in Iraq is only half
way up the hill. With a little help from US friendly forces in the region, and
the UN Security Council vote on August 10, to be a strong partner for peace,
the second half of the battle might not need to be fought. Putting history
into perspective, the current situation in the Middle East could be compared
to the WWI alignment of the warring forces in the Balkans which led to the final
dismantlement of the Ottoman territories. In Iran, the Shiite revolutionary fervor
under President Ahmadi-Nezhad, echoes the fist-raising slogans of the anti-imperialist
Bolsheviks under the late Lenin during WWI. Exercising patience, through a sustained
cold war period and perestroika, the Soviet Union peacefully disintegrated into
more than a dozen States.
If America holds steadfast with a purposeful resolve,
along the UN mission for peace, the current regimes in the Middle East
too, will disintegrate in due course without pushing the cannons of
war further up the hill. Given the physical destruction and loss of lives in Iraq, a similar
tactic to bring change to Iran should be beyond contemplation by US policy makers.
Instead, the United States with the help of the recent willingness by the United
Nations, and willing partners for change in Iraq and in the Middle East, ought
to focus on addressing the nearly unrecoverable current situation in Iraq.
The
most logical step forward is for President Bush to heed the solution
put forward by Senator Biden for “soft” partitioning of Iraq into three autonomous
states. With decades of peacekeeping missions and conflict resolution experience
(e.g. most recently in the Balkan states), the United Nations can facilitate
reformation of the failed state known as Iraq, and prepare the country for an
election by which disputed territories and natural resource centers are democratically
handed over to the duly elected regional governments. This in turn will
be the firm democratic ground that the United States had stated as a goal when
going in, but has so far failed to achieve. With the support of these newly formed
autonomous governments and the UN endorsement of the election results, what has
been a failure so far in Iraq could be turned into a successful US policy to
help promote democracy in the region, and the necessary support to help arrest
the advance of Iranian power and nuclear arm development.
Ardishir Rashidi-Kalhur
President,
Southern California Division
