Patience for the PA etc, but not for Iraq's government (re: Brit Hume/Sen. Levin interview)

Changes in the security situation on the ground in Iraq have become noticeable even to The New York Times, so they are noticed on Capitol Hill. Critics of the war have changed their tune from wanting to leave Iraq because too many American soldiers are being killed in a hopeless military quagmire to wanting to leave Iraq because the Iraqi government isn't doing a good enough job to suit the Senate. Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), a vocal proponent of a quick exit, was probably blunter than he meant to be:

They have made no progress... on the political side of things... over oil royalties, over elections in the provinces, over de-Baathification. Everyone agrees... that the reason the violence continues in Iraq is the failure of the Iraqi politicians. It's not that there's military chaos. It's that the politicians in Iraq have refused to make the compromises which are essential if there's going to be an end of violence in Iraq. That's the issue. There's been no progress in that area. That's why it makes no sense to wait till September.

Sen. Levin discounts the possibility that there can be no political progress until the violence is contained. In his way of thinking, because the Iraqi government has proven ineffectual in the 19 months since the first vote ever in Iraq, waiting for Gen. Petraeus's report in September is waiting too long. The senator wants to dump it before Labor Day.

Aside from noting, as interviewer Brit Hume did, that the U.S. Senate could be called ineffectual as well, we wonder what Sen. Levin would say about the Palestinian Authority or about Saudi Arabia and our relations with them.

Established in 1993, the PA - first under Arafat, then under his deputy Abu Mazen and now split between Fatah and Hamas - has proven to be massively corrupt, lethal to its own people as well as waging open warfare against one of America's key allies, Israel. Lest one forget, Hamas is currently shelling Sderot, but it was Fatah under Arafat and Abu Mazen that opened the Palestinian war against Israel in 2000 with bombings of civilians on a monstrous scale. Palestinian voters were so disgusted with Fatah corruption (though apparently not with the war against Israel) that even secular people voted for the fundamentalist Hamas as a protest. Would Sen. Levin abandon the "peace process" and withhold support from the Palestinians until they get their house in order? If so, he hasn't said so.

If political progress is essential to American support, could Sen. Levin please discuss Saudi Arabia BEFORE the next big arms sale is sent up to the Senate for approval? The Saudi government is a massive violator of human and religious rights at home, and an exporter of terrorists and funds to terrorism. The Saudi government threatens America and our allies directly.

The Iraqi government unquestionably has a long road to travel before it resembles one we would like to live under. But that argues for more political engagement by the U.S. government, not less military security. Our forces are finally building on an improved security situation with the local leadership on the ground - to undermine it by withdrawing support for Baghdad would condemn the people to endless bloodshed and the region to chaos.

Patience for the PA etc, but not for Iraq's government...same story in Africa - lots of sympathy and patience for the continued despotism and corruption that hinders development of stable, humanitarian governance there - "building democracy takes time", "they've had little experience with self-government", etc.etc.etc. - from the same people who want to give up and run away from Iraq after only five years of trying to establish workable democracy there.......

My sources in Levin’s office indicate that Levin is engaged in a game of “good cop bad cop” in this matter.

He knows that if the Iraqis don’t have a deadline, something scary on the horizon, they’ll never get their @#$% together. Nothing focuses the Suni mind quite like the thought that they Americans will leave, with the Shiites being supported by the Iranians while they have Al Quaeda in their own neighborhood.

On the other hand, Levin knows that if we leave the place in chaos, that the price of gasoline will hit $6 a gallon (or more) and he’ll be representing a state where the unemployment rate will be 25%. Like the gas shock of 1978 that sent Chrysler into bankruptcy, killed AMC, and severely damaged GM and Ford, this one is likely to do a lot of permanent damage.

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