Published: December 20, 2005
National Security Advisor Hadley Sees Emerging Consensus on Iraq War
By Phillip Kurata, Washington File
Lays out five elements of agreement between Bush and his critics
Washington - U.S. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley says broad agreement is emerging between President Bush and his domestic critics about how to deal with the Iraq war.
In a December 20 Washington speech about the "emerging common ground on the way ahead in Iraq," Hadley said, "there is a growing recognition that failure is not an option in Iraq."
He said President Bush and his critics in both the Democratic and Republican parties believe that defeat in Iraq would create a "safe haven for terrorists" in a country with vast natural resources that could be used to fund future terrorist attacks.
On the converse side of the debate, Hadley said that the president and his critics share a "growing recognition of the enormous benefits of success in Iraq."
"It will deliver a decisive blow to the ideology that fuels international terrorism," Hadley said. "A democratic Iraq will serve as a beacon of liberty, inspiring democratic reformers throughout the Middle East."
The security adviser said that the president has acknowledged that the war in Iraq has been controversial and has inflicted suffering and "sometimes unbearable loss on some American families." But Hadley said the path to bringing the U.S. troops home "is the path of success."
Hadley said the emerging consensus between the president and his critics is based on five elements:
training the Iraqi security forces and shifting increasing security responsibility to them;
bringing Iraq's Sunni Arab population into the political process;
supporting Iraqis as they review and possibly amend their constitution so that it becomes more of a national compact among Iraq's diverse groups;
expanding the international community's support for Iraq and its involvement in Iraq's reconstruction; and
refocusing support for Iraq's reconstruction and economic efforts so that they provide visible benefits and employment for Iraqis.
Hadley said that the critics of the Iraq war have presented their proposals as "radical breaks," but in fact their proposals "largely follow the strategic course established by President Bush."
The national security adviser said that the issues where the president and his critics differ involve an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq or setting a timeline for their withdrawal.
"Here there's no common ground," Hadley said. "[T]he advocates of these policies share a core belief that the war in Iraq is unwinnable and that America and the world will be better off by abandoning Iraq."
Hadley said that the majority of Iraqis share the belief that an immediate U.S. military withdrawal would be a mistake.
"A recent poll conducted by ABC News found that the majority of those [Iraqis] polled want us to stay either until security is established or until Iraqi security forces can secure their country on their own," Hadley said. "Most Iraqis, in other words, share our strategy. They expect any coalition force reductions to be conditions-based, not driven by arbitrary timelines."
He said that, despite the insurgency, a poll showed that 77 percent of Iraqi businesses anticipate growth in the national economy during the coming two years. The same poll indicated that 69 percent of the respondents described themselves as optimistic about Iraq's economic future, he said.
With regard to securing Iraq's Sunni Arabs' political involvement and support for the constitution, Hadley said that the December 15 legislative elections for permanent constitutional government were a milestone, in that voter turnout appears to have been more than 65 percent and Sunni Arabs voted in big numbers.
The security adviser said that the constitution accommodates Iraq's ethnic and sectarian divisions by stipulating a three-person presidency that requires approval of two-thirds of the assembly. Iraq is divided into three main communities - the Kurds in the north, the Sunni Arabs in the center where the insurgency is based and the Shia Arabs in the south.
Iraqi voters approved the constitution in a referendum October 15 on the provision that newly elected lawmakers could amend the document within four months of taking office. Any amendments will be submitted to the voters in a national referendum.
The key to success in revising the constitution is to get amendments that address the Sunnis' underlying concerns but do not create expectations, Hadley said.
"[T]he last thing you want is amendments or changes that do not meet Sunni expectations, and the Sunnis then come out and leave the political process," Hadley said. "[I]t's going to have to require some real statesmanship among the three communities - Sunni, Shia and Kurd."
As the president and his critics build their consensus about the war in Iraq, Hadley said it is important to keep in mind the "real story" about what the Iraqi people have achieved in the past two and a half years since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
"They have met every benchmark or milestone in the Transitional Administrative Law that they gave themselves to bring themselves in just two and a half years to this point," he said. "They've done a remarkable job. They're a remarkable people."
For additional information, see Iraq's Political Process.
Source: U.S. Department of State
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