New Delhi, Aug 22 (IANS) Four years after it toppled Saddam Hussein, the US “has failed on every promise” in Iraq, say seven American soldiers in that country, adding that the American military presence has only robbed Iraqis of their self-respect.
In a candid admission of American failures, the soldiers say that Washington would never be able to bring about any reconciliation in Iraq and it would be best to let Iraqis decide their own future.
“The most important front in the counter-insurgency, improving basic social and economic conditions, is the one on which we have failed most miserably,” they said in a joint article carried by the International Herald Tribune Monday.
The seven were identified as Buddhika Jayamaha (US Army specialist), Wesley D. Smith, Jeremy Roebuck, Omar Mora and Edward Sandmeier (all sergeants), and Yance T. Gray and Jeremy A. Murphy (staff sergeants).
All of them are infantrymen and non-commissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division, which will soon head back home and have put in 15 months in Iraq desperately trying to restore normalcy in the war-ravaged country.
“Two million Iraqis are in refugee camps in bordering countries. Close to two million more are internally displaced and now fill many urban slums. Cities lack regular electricity, telephone services and sanitation…
“Four years into occupation, we have failed on every promise, where we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence. When the primary preoccupation of average Iraqis is when and how they are likely to be killed, we can hardly feel smug as we hand out care packages…
“In the end, we need to recognise that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are – an army of occupation – and force our withdrawal.
“Until that happens, it would be prudent for us to increasingly let Iraqis take centre stage in all matters, to come with a nuanced policy in which we assist them from the margins but let them resolve their differences as they see fit.”
The soldiers – in the article titled “The Iraq war as see it” – describe as “far-fetched” claims that Americans can win over the Iraqis and said that such assertions come from “a flawed American-centred framework”.
“Reports that a majority of Iraqi army commanders are now reliable partners can be considered only misleading rhetoric,” the article said. “We operate in a bewildering context of determined enemies and questionable allies, one where the balance of forces on the ground remains entirely unclear.”
The soldiers went on: “We see that a vast majority of Iraqis feel increasingly insecure and view us as an occupation force that has failed to produce normalcy after four years and is increasingly unlikely to do so as we continue to arm each warring side.”