"U.S. is slowly but surely becoming isolated in its operations in Iraq"

Interview with Iraq expert Charles Heyman

"If we look at coalition operations across the whole of Iraq, the Japanese decision to withdraw the whole of their troops out of Al-Muthanna Governorate really doesn’t make much of a difference. First of all, we’ve known about this for quite a long time now; there’s been an enormous amount of debate going on in Japan. Those Japanese troops are assisting with reconstruction projects in probably the most sparsely populated province in Iraq, a province with a total population of about 300,000. And to help them do their reconstruction projects, they’ve been guarded by 400 Australian troops. And those Australian troops now are going to be redeployed elsewhere. So it is possible, actually, to say that the Japanese moving out might mean that some more troops are freed up for offensive operations against insurgents. Certainly, I think that the whole thing at the end of the day doesn’t have as much of a negative impact as most observers initially believed."

"The first we’ve got, in fact, is that those Australian troops are going to be moved from Al-Muthanna Governorate to the Syrian border to help with security in northern Iraq. Now, if that is true, of course that does mean that those Australian troops will be subject almost certainly to some form of attacks by insurgents during the weeks to come. So it’s going to be more difficult and more dangerous for them, and of course that will have some sort of reaction from domestic public opinion in Australia itself."

"In Europe, the war in Iraq is far more unpopular than many people, certainly in the U.S., actually believe. I mean, there is no doubt about it: a significant slice of European public opinion is very much against what’s going on in Iraq at the moment. So there is pressure on all of these smaller European contingents for their withdrawal. My gut feeling is that by the end of this year there will only be, coalition-wise, the Australians and the British helping the Americans, with maybe a handful of very, very small contingents from places like Latvia and Lithuania, and a few other countries. But really, really, pretty insignificant numbers overall. The only people we’re liable to see there are probably British and Australians assisting the Americans."

"I think politically and diplomatically, the presence of these contingents is very important. And having them leave the coalition is a sign, certainly for U.S. domestic opinion, that the U.S. is slowly but surely becoming isolated in its operations in Iraq. And there is also the chance that this isolation might translate itself to George W. Bush’s war on terror itself. And that’s someone that no one in his right mind wants to see."

full interview: http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/06/262e1945-27f0-4916-8e4a-25489cad03e9.html


my latest 2 cents: Cranking the Occupation (6-20-2006)