Post Shock and Awe

The American flag raised by Marines over the southern port of Umm Qasr in Iraq was up for only a moment before being taken down. Wrong message: the troops are there not to lay claim but to liberate. And the best way to do that is for the administration to begin talking now with allies, including the longtime allies that did not agree with the war, about the future governance of Iraq.

This will not be easy. Involving nations such as Germany, Russia and France and those in the Middle East that vocally opposed the war, and in whose streets protestors continue to restate this position, will require these nations to help make a success of what they did not want to happen at all. The United States must admit that it needs as much help as it can get in post-war Iraq. The situation is made more difficult by the lineup of U.S. companies that will reap large profits under the administration’s rebuilding plan.

The need for more nations is clear from the challenges ahead. As of Friday afternoon, Turkey still had not provided U.S. with flyover permission, the minimum request of the administration, yet its looming confrontation with the Kurds in Northern Iraq demands that it cooperate with the allies more closely than ever. The United States has often simply divided Muslims among Sunnis and Shiites and chosen the Sunni side, with an obvious exception. The United States reportedly has been dealing with the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution, the major Shiite Iraqi opposition group, and would be helped by promoting not just one or two organizations but many in encouraging the beginnings of a democracy. And U.S. troops had yet to enter Iraq when Europe, which knows something of imperialism, was accusing the United States of it.

Writing Friday in the New York Times, columnist Nicholas D. Kristof makes two important points to help secure the peace – make this an Arab victory by encouraging Iraqis to assume positions of authority. Don’t try to pay for the post-war rebuilding by selling Iraqi oil. The Middle East is already cynical about the motives behind this war; to take over and use the revenues from the Iraqi oil fields would confirm their distrust. They are excellent observations and would demonstrate sincerity by allies that would surprise countries opposed to the war.

The complications of post-war Iraq have been dissected an endless number of ways. Many more unexpected issues will arise. They will require a unified international body of support to solve – from simple funding to rebuild a shock-and-awed nation to the sharing of intelligence to prevent the inevitable power grabs now taking place, for example, in Afghanistan. This is an opportunity for the United States to demonstrate the respect for the United Nations that it traditionally has had and should have again. And it would build confidence in other nations that all the reassurances from the Bush administration mean something.

Post-war plans for Iraq already are under way, but transformation described by the White House will take years and offers the chance to improve the outcome of the post-war period and the world’s view of U.S. intentions in Iraq.