February 4, 2007
Self-denial? Ignorance?
Or secret strategy?
The consensus view of all 16 US spy agencies that even if US President George W. Bush's new Iraq plan succeeds militarily by quelling violence in Baghdad, the country's political leaders may fail to avert disaster places the finger right on the pulse of the crisis facing the US. The truth is that the situation is beyond salvation for the US and it has to blame only itself for the debacle. Any US effort to disengage itself from Iraq should start from the realisation that Washington has miserably failed to realise its objectives in post-war Iraq and it is too late for it to launch a fresh effort.
However, the Bush administration is not yet willing to do so. It still argues that the battle against insurgency in Iraq could be won and it could jump back to a position where it could have a US/Israeli-friendly government in Baghdad (never mind even if it is not acceptable to the people of the country) which will sign away lucrative oil contracts with US companies and act as a US proxy in the Arab World. In order to arrive at that point, the US has to pacify the Iraqis and hand over key control of the country to them. Washington still believes this could be done.
That is not a view shared by the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), although it does buttress Bush's position by cautioning against a hasty US withdrawal -- but challenges some of the basic underpinnings of the president's plan for Iraq.
The NIE predicts that Iraqi security forces would not be in a position to take over control from the US military by this November as called for in Bush's latest Iraq plan.
And "even if violence is diminished, given the current winner-take-all attitude and sectarian animosities infecting the political scene, Iraqi leaders will be hard pressed to achieve sustained political reconciliation," says the NIE.
The NIE also rejected the White House's efforts to pin the blame for the Iraq crisis on Iran.
The report agreed that "Iranian lethal support for select groups of Iraqi Shia militants clearly intensifies the conflict in Iraq." However, the involvement of Iran or Syria in Iraq "is not likely to be a major driver of violence or the prospects for stability because of the self-sustaining character of Iraq's internal sectarian dynamics," it said.
It is precisely the "internal sectarian dynamics" that spells failure for all American hopes and efforts to stabilise Iraq and advance Washington's objectives there.
Instead of acknowledging this reality and accepting the wisdom of the entire publicly known intelligence community of the US , the White House applied a selective approach. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley grabbed and used the NIS's warning of "spiralling violence and political disarray" in Iraq if US forces stage a hasty withdrawal to argue in favour of continued American presence in the country.
Withdrawal from Iraq would mean giving Al Qaeda a safe haven in Iraq and result in risk and threats to the United States, Hadley said, echoing Bush and others.
Defence Secretary Robert Gates enaged in semantics to argue against the term "civil war" to describe the ongoing Sunni-Shiite conflict there. Again, no matter how Washington might want to describe it, the conflict is nothing but civil war.
The NIE report was emphatic. It said "the term 'civil war' accurately describes key elements of the Iraqi conflict, including the hardening of ethno-sectarian identities, a sea change in the character of the violence, ethno-sectarian mobilisation, and population displacements."
The NIE report was not prepared by critics or enemies of the Bush administration. It was drawn up by experts after closely studying the developments and situation in Iraq with strong intelligence inputs. The White House's dismissal of its key observations consolidates the conviction that it is dead bent upon following a disastrous course in Iraq. Is it self-denial? Is it ignorance? Or is it a secret strategy? It could be any of the three or a combination of all, but it would make little difference to the catastrophe that awaits the US plans in Iraq, heralding with it more agony, grief and suffering for the people of that strife-torn country.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Saving troubles for all concerned
February 8, 2007
Saving troubles for all concerned
THE CASE OF 17 Sri Lankan migrant workers who paid $2,000 each for lucrative jobs in the Gulf but taken to Iraq instead is only the tip of an iceberg. There are thousands of Asian workers trapped in Iraq and forced to work for US military contractors at the risk of losing their lives in the strife-torn country.
Most Asian governments have imposed bans on their nationals taking up employment in Iraq. However, that has not really checked the flow of Asian workers who are enticed by offers of monthly salaries amounting to 10 times that they make at home.
In the case of the 17 Sri Lankans, the official version is that they believed they were being taken to a Gulf country to work and it was only when they were exposed to the bitter cold after landing that they realised it was Iraq. "It was up to two weeks before they actually realised that they were not in a country in the Gulf but actually in Iraq," according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which rescued them and flew them back home.
The 17 were fortunate to have been able to contact the UN and through it the IOM. As long as they remained in Iraq, their life was at risk. There are thousands like them who were not as lucky as them.
A US investigation conducted two years ago established that many Asian workers were forced to work for US contractors at US military camps in Iraq. They were threatened and intimidated into continuing there, with the US authorities taking little or no action despite being aware of what was going on. In some cases, the US commanders of the camps knew that the contractors were not even paying the workers their salaries but did nothing arguing that it was an affair that involved only the contractors and workers.
Only a dozen or so cases have been reported so far of Asian workers getting caught in the crossfire between the US forces and insurgents and getting killed, but that is only a scratch on the surface. Such cases get reported only when the identity of the deceased has been established and the death reported to the concerned diplomatic mission.
In a country where dozens of tortured and mutilated bodies turn up every day, establishing the identities of the dead is a difficult task. Since morgues perennially out of space, bodies are kept for a day or two for families to identify. Unidentified bodies are buried without ceremony, with little or no documentation for any follow-up if ever it happens. Such is the chaos that prevails in Iraq today.
The irony is that there seems to be little that Asian governments could do to block the flow of workers to Iraq. We do come across reports once in a while of Asian workers being prevented from boarding Iraq-bound planes from Gulf airports. Again these are odd cases that are exposed, while the bulk of the flow goes unchecked and unreported.
Indeed, the main reasons are poverty and unemployment that drive Asians to seek unemployment abroad. And the culprits are unscrupulous "employment agents" who exploit them and the exploitation is not limited to Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, the Philippines, India or Pakistan.
In most cases where exploitation of workers is exposed, corruption and political influence take the central stage, and the "agents" walk away without punishment. The governments of the countries involved bear the bulk of responsibility because they maintain a loose system.
The UAE has taken the lead in entering into bilateral agreements with Asian countries in order to prevent the exploitation of workers and check the unorganised flow of migrant labourers across borders. Such agreements benefit everyone concerned because loopholes in the system are plugged. Countries which host foreign workers remain updated of the flow and the countries of origin of workers could make sure that their nationals would not be taken for a ride. Workers themselves are spared the agony of having to pay hefty amounts for employment and then finding themselves left high and dry once they land in a foreign country dreaming of a better life ahead.
As such, the system looks and sounds ideal. However, the governments of countries of origin of workers have to live up to their side of the bargain by not only enacting tough rules and regulations but also enforcing them without compromise. Indeed, it could not be done overnight, but that does not mean the governments should give up or slacken their determination to stamp out exploitation.
Strengthening the pace and enforcement of rules and regulations would save everyone a lot of trouble on all sides.
Saving troubles for all concerned
THE CASE OF 17 Sri Lankan migrant workers who paid $2,000 each for lucrative jobs in the Gulf but taken to Iraq instead is only the tip of an iceberg. There are thousands of Asian workers trapped in Iraq and forced to work for US military contractors at the risk of losing their lives in the strife-torn country.
Most Asian governments have imposed bans on their nationals taking up employment in Iraq. However, that has not really checked the flow of Asian workers who are enticed by offers of monthly salaries amounting to 10 times that they make at home.
In the case of the 17 Sri Lankans, the official version is that they believed they were being taken to a Gulf country to work and it was only when they were exposed to the bitter cold after landing that they realised it was Iraq. "It was up to two weeks before they actually realised that they were not in a country in the Gulf but actually in Iraq," according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which rescued them and flew them back home.
The 17 were fortunate to have been able to contact the UN and through it the IOM. As long as they remained in Iraq, their life was at risk. There are thousands like them who were not as lucky as them.
A US investigation conducted two years ago established that many Asian workers were forced to work for US contractors at US military camps in Iraq. They were threatened and intimidated into continuing there, with the US authorities taking little or no action despite being aware of what was going on. In some cases, the US commanders of the camps knew that the contractors were not even paying the workers their salaries but did nothing arguing that it was an affair that involved only the contractors and workers.
Only a dozen or so cases have been reported so far of Asian workers getting caught in the crossfire between the US forces and insurgents and getting killed, but that is only a scratch on the surface. Such cases get reported only when the identity of the deceased has been established and the death reported to the concerned diplomatic mission.
In a country where dozens of tortured and mutilated bodies turn up every day, establishing the identities of the dead is a difficult task. Since morgues perennially out of space, bodies are kept for a day or two for families to identify. Unidentified bodies are buried without ceremony, with little or no documentation for any follow-up if ever it happens. Such is the chaos that prevails in Iraq today.
The irony is that there seems to be little that Asian governments could do to block the flow of workers to Iraq. We do come across reports once in a while of Asian workers being prevented from boarding Iraq-bound planes from Gulf airports. Again these are odd cases that are exposed, while the bulk of the flow goes unchecked and unreported.
Indeed, the main reasons are poverty and unemployment that drive Asians to seek unemployment abroad. And the culprits are unscrupulous "employment agents" who exploit them and the exploitation is not limited to Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, the Philippines, India or Pakistan.
In most cases where exploitation of workers is exposed, corruption and political influence take the central stage, and the "agents" walk away without punishment. The governments of the countries involved bear the bulk of responsibility because they maintain a loose system.
The UAE has taken the lead in entering into bilateral agreements with Asian countries in order to prevent the exploitation of workers and check the unorganised flow of migrant labourers across borders. Such agreements benefit everyone concerned because loopholes in the system are plugged. Countries which host foreign workers remain updated of the flow and the countries of origin of workers could make sure that their nationals would not be taken for a ride. Workers themselves are spared the agony of having to pay hefty amounts for employment and then finding themselves left high and dry once they land in a foreign country dreaming of a better life ahead.
As such, the system looks and sounds ideal. However, the governments of countries of origin of workers have to live up to their side of the bargain by not only enacting tough rules and regulations but also enforcing them without compromise. Indeed, it could not be done overnight, but that does not mean the governments should give up or slacken their determination to stamp out exploitation.
Strengthening the pace and enforcement of rules and regulations would save everyone a lot of trouble on all sides.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
![Iraq counter](http://a href="http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html" img src="http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/images/iraqdeaths.gif" alt="Just Foreign Policy Iraqi Death Estimator" width="150" height="150" border="0" /a){kind=link}