US the loser in Iraq's growing civil war, says Powell
Powell: Speaking his mind at last.
Photo: AP
FORMER US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said the United States is losing a "civil war" in Iraq and he is not persuaded that an increase in troops would reverse the situation. Instead, he called for a new strategy that would relinquish responsibility for Iraqi security to the Baghdad Government sooner rather than later, with US troop reductions to begin by the middle of next year.
Mr Powell's comments broke his long public silence on the issue and placed him at odds with the Administration.
President George Bush is considering options for a new military strategy — among them a "surge" of 15,000 to 30,000 troops added to the current 140,000 in Iraq, to secure Baghdad and to accelerate the training of Iraqi forces, as Republican senator John McCain and others have proposed; or a redirection of the US military away from the insurgency to focus mainly on hunting al-Qaeda terrorists.
Mr Bush has rejected the conclusions of the Iraq Study Group and its recommendations to set parameters for a phased withdrawal to begin next year, and he has insisted that the violence in Iraq is not a civil war.
Mr Powell, who attempted to persuade the United Nations of the need to invade Iraq, made it clear he agreed with the conclusions of the Iraq Study Group. The situation in Iraq is "grave and deteriorating, and we're not winning, we are losing. We haven't lost. And this is the time, now, to start to put in place the kinds of strategies that will turn this situation around." Speaking on CBS, Mr Powell seemed to draw as much from his army career as from his more recent and difficult tenure as Mr Bush's chief diplomat. The summer's surge of US troops to try to stabilise Baghdad failed, he said, and any new attempt is unlikely to succeed.
"If somebody proposes that additional troops be sent, if I was still chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, my first question … is what mission is it these troops are supposed to accomplish? … Is it something that is really accomplishable? … Do we have enough troops to accomplish it?"
Although he said he agreed with General John Abizaid, the top US commander in the Middle East, that there should be an increase in US advisers to the Iraqi military, he said that "sooner or later you have to begin the baton pass, passing it off to the Iraqis for their security and to begin the drawdown of US forces. I think that's got to happen some time before the middle of next year."
Before any decision to increase troops, he said, "I'd want to have a clear understanding of what it is they're going for, how long they're going for. And let's be clear about something else … There really are no additional troops. All we would be doing is keeping some of the troops who were there, there longer and escalating or accelerating the arrival of other troops."
Even beyond Iraq, the US Army and Marines have to "grow in size, in my military judgement," he said, adding that Congress must provide significant additional funding to sustain them.
Mr Powell agreed with the study group's recommendation that the Administration open talks with Syria and Iran as it gropes for a solution to the Iraq problem.
Mr Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have rejected talks until Syria ends its destabilising influence in Lebanon and until Iran suspends its nuclear enrichment program.
The Administration has charged both countries with aiding the Iraqi insurgency.
"Do they get marginal support from Iran and Syria? You bet they do," Mr Powell said of the Iraqi militants.
