Iraq and the War of Ideas

(see the article in the Miami Herald's Site)


Published June 20, 2006

Somebody told President Bush not to gloat about the killing of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the psychopathic head of al Qaeda in Iraq.

Even as he made his hush-hush trip to Iraq last Tuesday, President Bush kept to the carefully calibrated message of optimism without boasting. It must be hard. You can almost see him clenching his jaw as he tries to hold back the cheers in order to sound thoughtful, sober and restrained speaking of that rare achievement, a desperately needed military and intelligence victory by American forces.

The president, however, should loosen up a bit, and take this opportunity to take another rare and desperately needed move: Throw Donald Rumsfeld a party -- a thank-you and good-bye party.

In fact, the White House should play up the recent victory and celebrate by dumping the secretary of defense and shutting down that gift to al Qaeda propaganda, the shameful and counter-productive prison at Guantánamo Bay.

Send Rumsfeld out under the banner of a new beginning now that Zarqawi's dead and Iraq has an elected government. Claim the world is safer and we no longer need the prison or the secretary. But take action now.

The war against Islamic extremist terrorism and its ideology requires strategic thinking on two fronts. One front is military. There, Zarqawi's death marks an undeniable success. The other front, at least as important as the first, is persuading the masses, the people who are trying to decide whose ideology to support, that the United States stands for something more desirable, more humane, more legitimate than what Zarqawi, bin Laden and their followers are offering. The Bush White House has all but ignored that crucial part of the war.

It's time for America to reclaim the hilltops of human decency.

A military victory like the killing of a man like Zarqawi, charismatic, blood thirsty and operationally ingenious, should be followed by a quick effort to maintain the offensive. American forces, we are told, conducted dozens of raids against other al Qaeda operatives in Iraq immediately after the hit on Zarqawi. The Iraqi people celebrated, and U.S. troops slapped high fives.

It's not surprising, however, that the United States had to quickly deflect any emerging rumors that Zarqawi might have been shot after being captured. That's because many around the globe, and probably the majority in the Arab and Muslim worlds, are ready to believe the worst about America. That is the direct result of policies implemented by the White House and the Pentagon.

Besides the killing of Zarqawi, the other big stories from the war front are the suspected massacre of Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines at Haditha, and the suicide of three prisoners at Guantánamo. The Haditha atrocities, if proven true, trace straight back to Rumsfeld's anything-goes policies. So did the horrors at Abu Ghraib.

At one point, it looked like the American people, and their government, felt that what happened at Abu Ghraib was so outrageous, so intolerable, that the most severe punishment should come upon those responsible. Rumsfeld, grilled in both the House and the Senate, dramatically declared, ''These events occurred on my watch, and I take full responsibility.'' We know what came next: Nothing happened to Rumsfeld. The White House handled the incidents as a fluke, the misbehavior of a few stray individuals. Regardless of what the speeches said, the message to the rest of the world was that America wasn't all that ashamed after all.

America should be deeply ashamed, and I believe the American people indeed are. They also should be embarrassed that an American official called the suicides at Guantánamo ''a good PR move.'' The worst regimes in history have a track record of detaining individuals and imprisoning them indefinitely without charging them or putting them on trial for their crimes. The United States is right to fight against terrorism. But if America continues these practices, it will never reclaim its respect, prestige and dignity.

Congress would gladly write the laws required to imprison and try terrorists with some form of due process.

Winning the war against Muslim fanatics who stop at nothing, and opening the way to democracy in the Middle East, requires showing the millions who are watching that there's a better way than the seventh century Islamic theocracy of Bin Laden, or the king, emir or president-for-life formula that has kept the people of Middle East in a state of tragic, combustible stagnation.

So, Mr. Bush, let Rumsfeld leave on a high note. Tell him, ''Thanks for your work. Time to retire.'' And, for the sake of America's principles, dignity and its standing in the world, shut down Guantánamo. It's a perfect time for a new beginning.

Frida Ghitis writes on world affairs.