The Sunday Times revealed new plans by the U.S. Army for a “second liberation of Baghdad” to be carried out with the help of the Iraqi forces once a new government is installed.
Negotiations between Iraqi officials over the refusal of Sunni Arab and Kurdish parties to accept al-Jaafari, the Shia nominee to head the new government, had so far failed.
The U.S. military claims that its new campaign, which is being planed by U.S. commanders in Iraq and at the U.S. army base in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, under Lieutenant- General David Petraeus and includes pacifying the Iraqi capital, will help establish the authority of the new government, expected to be formed the coming days, and preparing for the withdrawal of a significant number of U.S. troops.
The plan, which adopts the “carrot-and-stick” approach, according to The Sunday Times, will be carried out under the guise of protecting Iraqis from the heated sectarian strife that has stricken many areas in the country in recent weeks “in exchange for rooting out insurgent groups and Al-Qaeda”.
U.S. and Iraqi forces will be moving from one neighbourhood to the other, leaving behind Sweat teams “sewage, water, electricity and trash” to work on upgrading clinics, schools, rubbish collection, water and electricity supplies.
The first target for the campaign will be what the U.S. military describes as Sunni insurgent strongholds, moving later on to the Shia armed groups, including Al Mahdi Army led by the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, as well as the Iranian-backed Badr Brigade.
The new campaign comes amid intense pressure the U.S. President and the Pentagon Chief are facing over their failure to handle Iraq war, especially with a notable surge in violence that’s claiming more lives from both sides; the Iraqis and the U.S. forces.
President Bush wants to show his nation that Iraq is not slipping into a civil war as numerous analysts and experts have warned and continue to warn.
Such campaign will definitely help the Bush administration, already facing major slide in its approval ratings, in coming mid-term congressional elections scheduled to be held in November.
Recently carried out survey showed that Bush's approval ratings have went below 40%.
Iraq is a swirling mess of competing Sunni and Shia armed men, and experts are warning that the country is sliding into chaos at an alarming rate.
Kidnappings have risen to 50 a day in Iraq.
Also out of fear of sectarian attacks, residents now carry ID cards and ostentatiously religious CDs.
“If you are stopped at a Shia checkpoint, you have to show you have a Shia name, and if it is a Sunni insurgent checkpoint, it is good to show that your name is Omar,” said a Baghdad resident who had recently obtained a new ID.
While it’s essential to bring Baghdad under control, Reuel Marc Gerecht, an expert on Iraq at the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute, expresses his fear that the American troops would leave the bulk of the fighting to the Iraqis and that a showdown could misfire.
“You would have to come down like a hammer on the Sunni areas of Baghdad and go house to house and nobody wants to do that,” Gerecht added.
“It’s inevitably going to come and it’s going to be convulsive. The Americans will be there, but not in the numbers needed because American casualty rates will go up.”
The campaign also is seen as protecting the new government, expected to be another U.S. puppet, from rebel attacks.
Daniel Gouré, a Pentagon adviser and vice-president of the Lexington Institute, a military think tank, refers to the formation of a new Iraqi government as a “second liberation of Baghdad,”
“The new government will be able to claim it is taking back the streets.”
Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell at the State Department, believes that the new operations, expected to start towards the end of the summer, is one of the ways where the new Iraqi government can bind the new national army and prove its strength.
Baghdad is the key to stability in Iraq. It’s a chance for the new government to stand up and say, ‘Here we are’. They can’t do that if they are hunkered down in bunkers.”
Admitting that the American army is facing hard time in the war-torn country, Lieutenant-General John Vines, who stepped down as commander of ground forces in Iraq at the beginning of this year, expressed concern over the presence of over 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, suggesting that it’s essential to reduce that number.
“There is an incredible amount of stress and I’m worried about it,” Vines said, adding that the troops were on their third or fourth tours of duty in Iraq:
“The war has been going on nearly as long as the Second World War and we’re asking a lot of the forces.”
al JAzeera