More Troops in Iraq?

There is indication today that the US may increase the number of troops in Iraq on a temporary basis. While US President Bush, who is currently in Jakarta, was non-definitive on the plan of action, Pentagon officials may opt for an increase in troops. The idea is to restore security in the country, particularly Baghdad, by bringing in as many as 20 000 new troops.

In their midterm Congress bid the democrats vowed to not increase troops in Iraq. It will be interesting to see how the Democratic Party will handle this, if the Bush Administration truly decides to go ahead with a troops increase. With 144 000 troops already on the ground, the Democrats’ may be accused of being unpatriotic.

With violence in the country rampant, security has to be somehow restored and decreasing troops can potentially put American troops in danger. Without a commitment from Iran and Syria, a plan favored by British PM Tony Blair, it’s hard to imagine the right plan for the Administration to take. In fact, a troops increase could be a last attempt at a decisive victory, which the Bush Administration has been thirsting for a while.

It is clear that within the next twelve months or so the US will decrease their troops in Iraq, but the next few months can go either way.

The most interesting story to follow is the way the Democrats will be handling it.

Failure in Iraq

Human Rights Watch has called Saddam Hussein’s trial “flawed” and unfounded. According to the organization’s report, there have been substantial procedural inconsistencies, which make the trial and its ruling “fundamentally unfair”.

This is quite a blow to the notion that the US has had success in establishing a to-be-democracy in Iraq. The country’s first real trial being unfair is not a way to establish a viable democracy and is not something the US should be promoting or condoning. The BBC reports that Hussein’s lawyer has said that his client’s appeal process has been interfered with; also not something that lends much credibility to the idea of democracy in Iraq.

The HRW report comes as a wave of anti-Iraq-policy sentiment is present in the US, following the US midterm elections. Even Henry Kissinger has spoken out about the war in Iraq, stating that a military victory is no longer possible. Kissinger doesn’t see the new Iraqi government as capable of ending the civil war and sectarian violence that is rampant in the country.

Saddam Hussein’s death sentence will not help with this violence, especially if there is suggestion that the trial was unfair. And this puts the US into an uncomfortable dilemma: it is already clear that the US will be redeploying its troops within the next year, yet by exiting Iraq the US may be doing so having failed at its goals in the country.