Sudoku in baghdad

 

 

Can your father help you solve problems that are unsolvable? This seems to be the dilemma confronting the bruised, battered and beleaguered American President George Bush as he contemplates rapidly shrinking options in the mess that is now Iraq. A new report and a new set of recommendations have been submitted by the now famous Iraq Study Group, headed by James Baker III, a close confidant of the senior George Bush and a former Secretary of State. The recommendations have ignited another furious debate over the role of the US in Iraq.

Two recommendations are steps that Bush would not even consider till a few months ago: start withdrawing troops and open a political dialogue with Iran and Syria to take their help in stabilising Iraq. If the neo-cons who advise Bush have their way, they would outright reject these proposals. And it looks like they have convinced Bush that ‘staying the course’ is the best option. He recently announced in Washington, “If they want to sit down with the US at the table, it is easy. Just make some decisions that will lead to peace, and not conflict”.

Both Syria and Iran refuse to negotiate with the US if the latter insists on putting forth pre-conditions. Meanwhile, the bloodbath continues in Iraq, with a full fledged civil war between the Shia and Sunni populations killing at least 100 Iraqis every day. The mainstream American media too seems to have dropped its slavish support to the war in Iraq and now officially calls the situation a civil war, a term still not accepted by Bush and his aides.

After the battering that Bush and his neo-cons got in the recent elections to the Senate and the Congress, many Americans had hoped that he might take advice from his more pragmatic father. Those hopes might turn out to be naïve.