Editorial

In the past, US President George W. Bush has frequently tried to convince the world of his baseless idea that things are getting better in Iraq. But rarely has the news from the war-torn country ever substantiated his claims. On the contrary, the daily reports of bombings, sectarian killings and seemingly endless bloodshed have painted a bleak picture of a country that has no hope of ever becoming a stable and prosperous democracy. However, one recent development gives cause for optimism: The Iraqis are taking more initiative to secure their own country.

Iraqi leaders have taken a first step toward stabilization by inviting their neighbors, along with the permanent members of the Security Council and others, to attend a conference in Baghdad. They say that they will use the meeting to ask all of their neighbors - not just Iran and Syria, but also Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey and Kuwait - to make contributions toward improving Iraq's security. The meeting could also go a long way toward defusing regional tensions, since it will provide a forum for the United States to meet face-to-face with its arch-foes, Iran and Syria, with whom the Bush administration has refused to communicate, despite the recommendations of a key bipartisan panel on Iraq.

The most significant thing about the conference, however, is not who will or will not attend; rather, it is the fact that it has been organized by the Iraqis themselves and marks the first time that they are taking the lead in securing Iraq. This development bodes well because the Americans, who have been in the driver's seat until now, have been steering the Iraqis off a cliff. US officials with little or no knowledge about the country they are trying to shape have been running Iraq with all the detached arrogance of a colonial power. They created a coalition around themselves instead of the Iraqis. They tried to impose their view of a democratic Iraq, but this was little more than a fantasy conceived in the corridors of power in Washington. They craft security plans from the comfort and isolation of their cocoon-like fortress in the Green Zone, but these strategies have little impact in terms of quelling violence in the war-ravaged country.
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Virtually every policy blunder in Iraq can be traced to US engineering. For example, the Bush administration vetoed attempts by two consecutive Iraqi governments to implement a viable reconciliation plan - a strategy that could have prevented the outbreak of sectarian war in the country.

What is worse is that the Americans have refused to accept responsibility for their own failed policies. Instead, they have blamed Iran and Syria for the escalating violence in Iraq, even though a significant number of insurgents and militants have poured into the country from across the borders of other states that are allied with the US.

The Iraqi-led conference may be the first sign that the Iraqis are rising up from under the mountain of American mistakes and setting their own security agenda. Because the conference is being organized by the Iraqis, and not the Americans, it would be inappropriate for Bush to claim it on his (highly questionable) scorecard of benchmarks achieved. But it could prove to be more of a real turning point than any of the occasions on which he has declared "mission accomplished."

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