Winning the Peace

To those of you in Jamaica who have opposed military action in Iraq for humanitarian or economic reasons, I want you to know we appreciate your concerns.  Immediate priorities include the rapid and secure delivery of humanitarian aid to the Iraqi people, beginning a sustainable reconstruction process, and extending necessary assistance to help Iraqis build a representative government that protects the rights of its citizens.  And then our military forces will leave.  The government of Iraq, and the future of the country, will belong to the Iraqi people.   I am confident that Iraq will be able to go forward as a sovereign nation that has regained a respected place in the world.

A New Kind of Conflict

Having spent most of my career in nations in conflict, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, it is very clear to me that the coalition strategy has taken exceptional care to minimize civilian casualties, to limit the Iraqi regime's ability to wage destruction against its own people and neighbors, and to safeguard Iraq's natural resources for the future prosperity of its people.  We grieve for the loss of civilian life, despite our great efforts to prevent civilian causalities.  It is clear that the Iraqi regime did the opposite.  It deliberately put Iraqi civilians in harm's way, and used women and children as human shields. 

We understand that we made a difficult choice in exercising the last resort of war.  However, this is the true test of responsibility  - making the difficult choices and accepting the risks and costs inherent in such decisions. 

What We Know about Saddam

We were surprised that, around the world, some human rights groups opposed this conflict so actively when one of our primary goals was to end the horrors of the Iraqi regime.  Under Saddam's regime many hundreds of thousands of people - Arabs, Kurds, Persians, and others - died as a result of his actions.

• Over 500,000 died during the Iran-Iraq war following Saddam's invasion of his neighbor.

• Over 50,000 died following Saddam's invasion and absorption of, and subsequent expulsion from, Kuwait.

• Statements from torture victims collected by the British human rights group, INDICT, have recently revealed how Hussein and sadistic members of his family personally supervised and derived pleasure from the brutal executions of men, women and children. 

• One of Saddam's sons, Qusay Saddam Hussein, is reported to have personally murdered 1200-1300 people during the past decade, in some instances spraying mustard gas into prisoners' cells and in others feeding bodies into a shredding machine.

• Saddam ordered approximately 40 of his own relatives murdered.

• Documented chemical attacks by the regime, from 1983 to 1988, resulted in some 30,000 Iraqi and Iranian deaths.

• Human Rights Watch estimates that Saddam's 1987-1988 campaign of terror against the Kurds killed at least 50,000 and possibly as many as 100,000 people.

The regime of Saddam Hussein is being removed from power, and a long era of fear and cruelty is ending.   But as President Bush has made clear, the work is far from complete.  Coalition forces are now operating inside Baghdad - and will not stop until Saddam's gang is gone.

The Reconstruction of Iraq

President Bush has made it clear that military action is directed against the Iraqi regime, not its people.  During his televised world address two weeks ago, he noted that, "we come to Iraq with respect for its citizens, for their great civilization, and for the religious faiths they practice. We have no ambition in Iraq except to remove a threat and restore control of that country to its own people."  Our goals are clear:  We will help Iraqis build an Iraq that is whole, free and at peace with itself and with its neighbors; an Iraq that is disarmed of all weapons of mass destruction; that no longer supports or harbors terror; that respect the rights of Iraqi people and the rule of law; and that is on the path to democracy.  To achieve these goals, we will dismantle the tyrannical infrastructure of Saddam Hussein's regime.  That is, in fact, being done as coalition forces go through the country.  We will work with Iraqis, our coalition partners and international organizations to rebuild Iraq.

As National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said, "the coalition will naturally have the leading role for a period of time to ensure the provision of essential services to the Iraqi people.  That action will require a united effort.  But, of course, the United Nations has expertise in many key areas, and the coalition will welcome its participation in postwar Iraq."  During the Azores summit, coalition leaders also stressed that they would welcome the efforts of U.N. specialized agencies and NGOs in providing immediate assistance to the Iraqi people.  Ultimately, the precise role of the United Nations will be determined in consultations between the Iraqi people, coalition members, other member states of the United Nations,  and U.N. officials.  One thing is certain: we will work to return sovereignty to the Iraqi people as quickly as possible, sovereignty that was denied to them under Saddam Hussein.

The "experts" who dismiss hopes for Iraqi democracy as naïve, and the campaign to liberate Iraq's people as dangerously destabilizing, do not explain why Iraqis are uniquely unsuited for representative government.  They betray a cultural bigotry that ill serves the global community's interests and values.  The apocalyptic vision of a Middle East inflamed by American or "Western" intervention ignores the fact that the status quo bred al Qaeda, and is hardly the basis for long-term stability in the region.  The process of building a representative government of, by and for the Iraqi people is not easy, but it will happen.

Moving Forward Together

Jamaica and the United States - and indeed Jamaicans and Americans - do not always see eye to eye on issues of the day.  Ambassador Cobb has often said that we must emphasize the areas where we can agree and move forward to the mutual benefit of both our countries.  Our ties are too close to do otherwise.

We should all agree that Iraq has failed to comply with legitimate UN demands.  I think we can agree that Saddam Hussein's regime has been brutal and oppressive.  I think we can agree that Iraq poses a danger, while perhaps not agreeing on the magnitude or immediacy of the danger.  We can agree that the UN is an important institution.  We can agree in our mutual devotion to freedom, liberty, and human dignity.  In my judgment, emphasizing our areas of agreement will best serve our countries as we move farther into the 21^st century.

In the months ahead, the pundits will continue to debate the efficacy of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  I encourage members of the public to use the information and views you read and hear to shape your own informed opinions, and to seek other independent sources of information.  Delve beneath sensationalism, superficial analyses, ideological diatribes, and anecdotal reports.  Read, watch, and listen critically whether you are consuming Iraqi, American, or Jamaican information.  Think about what is being said, and why.  The situation faced in Iraq is deadly serious.  It is not a time for sarcasm, caricature, or facile oversimplification.

On the news last night, I watched an armed Kurdish freedom fighter approach fleeing Iraqi soldiers who had dropped their weapons.  The fear on the soldiers' faces was palpable.  "What will happen to the Iraqi soldiers?" asked a reporter.  The Kurdish man embraced one of his former opponents, and said, "Go in peace.  We are all free Iraqis now."   This is the message Iraqis have for each other, a message reinforcing the fundamental challenge to the international community:  winning the war is certain, while winning the peace is imperative.