| Submit your comments on this article |
| International-UN-NGOs |
| Think Tank sez US policy good, but Iraq still bad |
| 2005-05-24 |
| U.S. policy has helped improve Middle East security over the past year, but Iraq still drives recruits into the arms of al Qaeda, one of the world's top think tanks said on Tuesday in its annual survey of global security. The International Institute for Strategic Studies, whose experts have sometimes been skeptical of U.S. policy under President Bush, gave credit to Washington for measures that appeared to bear fruit over the past year. But it said that the security picture in Iraq, which improved markedly in the wake of January's election, has deteriorated again over the past two months. "If May 2004 was marked by widespread despair over burgeoning insurgency in Iraq ... the watchword for May 2005 was guarded hope," it said in its 384-page Strategic Survey, which hailed the "healthy" turnout at the Iraqi election. It also pointed to progress in the Arab-Israeli conflict, the promise of multi-party elections in Egypt and uprisings against Syria in Lebanon as examples of U.S. policy success. "On balance, U.S. policy in 2004-2005 appeared fairly effective in emboldening regional actors in the Middle East and Gulf to rally against rogue states and implement gentle political reforms," the IISS said. "But the inspirational effect of the Iraq intervention on transnational Islamist terrorism remained the proverbial elephant in the living room," it said. "From al Qaeda's point of view, Bush's Iraq policies have arguably produced a confluence of propitious circumstances: a strategically bogged down America, hated by much of the Islamic world and regarded warily even by its allies." IISS Director John Chipman, who presented the report, said Iraq still suffers from a security vacuum, with insurgent attacks worsening sharply over the past two months. "The upsurge in violence in April and May indicates that neither the U.S. military nor the nascent Iraq security forces have managed to increase their capacity to control the country," he said. The report said the reopening of dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis after the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat marked a "tipping point" in the peace process. "Stark changes have been heralded not only by Arafat's death, but by (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon's conversion and Bush's commitment to use American influence to achieve a final status accord," it said. But success depended also on militant groups like Hamas that have rejected the peace process. In an unusual chapter on international law and the "war on terrorism," the report described how courts over the past year had rolled back many new anti-terrorism powers claimed by governments, especially in the United States and Britain. It said Washington and its allies had yet to resolve key legal issues, such as whether war could be justified against threats that were not imminent. But it blamed the White House for the "shocking" abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody. An "amateurish official legal debate" in the Bush administration "incorrectly suggested that certain prisoners were 'not legally entitled' to humane treatment." "Such illegal practices made the achievement of any broad international coalition in Iraq even more difficult than it already was, and strengthened the cause of the insurgents." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |