Withdrawing Troops from Iraq is the Next Step in Nation Building

Imagine for a moment that your neighbor's kitchen catches fire. The fire department roars in to put the fire out. Firefighters cut a hole in the roof to let the heavy smoke out. They crash through the back door thinking there may be someone inside. There isn't, thank goodness. They throw a lot of water into the kitchen. Once the fire is knocked down, they shut off the power to prevent electrocution and the water to prevent more damage. They pull down some of the walls and ceiling to get at hot spots. Eventually, when they are certain that the fire is out, the firefighters pack up their equipment and return to their stations.

You're standing on the sidewalk with another neighbor watching.

"What a bunch of bums those firemen are," the neighbor says to you. "They didn't replace the kitchen cabinets. They didn't fix the walls. They didn't teach the family how to file their insurance. They aren't driving the kids to school. They didn't put a new lock on the back door. They've left the place in terrible shape."

Now, except for the 'bunch of bums' comment, everything your neighbor said about the firefighters is true. What do you say to him?

How about this: "None of those things are jobs firefighters do. The things we expect them to do-fire safety and suppression-they did admirably. Besides, the house was in terrible shape when they arrived; it would have been worse if they hadn't. You're right that there's a lot of work yet to be done, but they aren't the right people to do it. Our neighbors need some carpenters, painters, an insurance agent, a locksmith, maybe a banker and an attorney. They need a lot of people but they don't need any more firefighters."

The US military entered Iraq like firefighters. On the whole, they have performed admirably. There are some exceptions to this and they have been or will be investigated, prosecuted and punished. They should be. We hold our soldiers to high standards.

Almost six years on, we find a situation with few positives. But we must be honest about them no matter how few. We did indeed defeat the Iraqi army. With our allies, we initially secured the primary urban areas. We captured the brutal dictator Saddam Hussein and turned him over to the Iraqi judiciary.

Of course, when we look at conditions in Iraq today, we see a vigorous terrorist campaign being conducted against the civilian population. We see a civil war between the two dominant religious and ethnic groups. We see a national infrastructure so destroyed it cannot reliably feed, light, water, educate, medicate, police or shelter the people of the nation. The place is a mess.

And many of our neighbors start wringing their hands saying, "What's our military doing wrong?"

The short answer is: nothing.

The longer answer deals with the role of the military and the failure of the current US administration to put together the necessary economic, diplomatic and political teams to do all the work that Iraq needs but that the military is not equipped, trained or intended to handle.

The Army can't solve every problem.

As an American, that's a weird idea. We have a long history of military success. At their best, our armed forces have protected the weakest and most oppressed people in the world and defeated genocidal tyrants who turned their power to govern into savage bloodlust. The image of Adolph Hitler springs to mind but it is good to remember that Saddam Hussein also fit the description.

We also have a rather ugly history of military failures, almost none of which occurred on the battlefield. Most of our military failures have come about because we asked our warriors to do things that they weren't trained to do or that aren't appropriate for armies and navies to do in the first place. 'Winning the hearts and minds of the people' is one such made-for-failure mission. The adoration of the liberated masses, however intense, has the same shelf life as milk. It sours quickly.

The bottom line is that a military is designed to kill and destroy. This may conflict a bit with your local recruitment poster. But if these are not the primary design parameters, what in the world are all those guns, tanks and bombs for? There is, of course, nothing wrong with this.

This is why the US military needs to pull out of Iraq sooner rather than later-Iraq doesn't need more killing and destruction. The fire is out and we are making no longer improving the overall situation with a large combat presence. This isn't to say that the US has to abandon the country. But soldiers don't do the kind of work that Iraq most needs right now. In fact, much of that work is being thwarted by their presence.

"Government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem," Ronald Reagan said 25 years ago. His solution to problems was usually, at least in foreign affairs, some sort of military action. For President Bush this was the same no-brainer policy in the months after September 11th. Most of the nation agreed. But in Iraq, we see now that this strategy is exactly the wrong one. Iraq is wildly overpopulated with military people, official and unofficial. The country is being poisoned to death by too much military.

Iraq needs some good government.

So while the US Congress is tied into knots about the continued military role we are to play and pay for in Iraq, the most obvious and fundamental question is left unasked, undebated and unanswered. Why is the fire department still there when the fire is out?

Moreover, just as you can't squeeze a carpenter, an electrician and an insurance agent into a burnt out kitchen packed with 20 firefighters, you can't get an international contingent of engineers, jurists, medicos, educators and business people into Iraq when the country is full of soldiers, insurgents and terrorists.

We have to remember that the broader Iraqi population is neither impotent nor stupid. They have some of the highest per capita populations of physicians, engineers and professors in the developed world. They are sitting on a sea of precious oil. They enjoy the benefits of a culture infused with the strength and dignity of Islam (never mind that this faith is too often misappropriated by some terrorists).

The US should assemble and lead a 'Coalition of the Rebuilding' in order to conduct the business of rebuilding the war decimated infrastructure-roads, schools, hospitals, warehouses, power generation plants, universities, courthouses, book binderies, domestic army outposts, farms, a fully operational national internet and even fire stations. In short, the world needs to give the civilized Iraqis the support they need to reconstruct their civilization.

Looking at that list, there isn't a single role for the military of any nation to play. They are the wrong experts for the tasks that need to be done.

As for the violence undeniably yet to come, this is for the Iraqis to resolve by aggressive law enforcement, a vigorous judiciary, a reinvigorated economy (a good job is the best anti-terrorist incentive there is) and a reassertion of the peaceful tenets of Islam.

The Army can't solve every problem.