#9 - RW 272
Military Expert Says Russia Should Be Helping To Restore Order in Iraq
Trud
27 August 2003
Article by Colonel General Vladimir Kulakov, member of the RF Federation Council, doctor of military sciences, member of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences:
"Russia Could Go To Iraq--Under the Flag of the United Nations"

Washington recently once again rejected the idea of the commitment of UN peacekeepers in Iraq. It was essentially made clear to France, India, and other countries that have made the participation of their military forces in a peacekeeping mission dependent on its transfer to the aegis of the United Nations that the United States has no intention of relinquishing the dominant role in Iraq.

The positions of the Americans in this country are not today that strong, meanwhile. Conducting an operation to oust the Husayn regime practically per the Yugoslav scenario, they, to give them their due, accomplished the missions of the first stage rapidly and efficiently. Iraq's army has been smashed, the leadership has fled. But the so-called peaceful phase of "democratization" of the occupied state has, contrary to the optimistic forecasts, proven challenging and bloody. The US and British servicemen are not in a position to control the situation at this time even in Baghdad. According to certain information, the number of violent deaths in the city has grown 50-fold. Dozens of Iraqis are dying weekly in exchanges of fire and in the course of sweeps.

The occupation forces are sustaining losses also. Whereas during the combat operations 257 American and 43 British servicemen died, more than 120 have died since the end of the military phase. This is according to official information, which the Americans traditionally understate. President Bush says here that Iraq is now a safer place and that the economic situation in the country has improved. But he was almost immediately repudiated by Paul Bremer, leader of the US military administration, who observed that Iraq "is not as safe as it should be...."

This difference of opinion points to one thing: a certain confusion reigns in the leadership of the American-British coalition. And with good reason. Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have not been found, order is not being restored there, the authority of the leaders of the United States and Britain is declining even in their own countries, and compatriots are demanding increasingly an explanation of why the blood of their sons and brothers is being shed in a far-off eastern country. Whence also the to-ing and fro-ing of the Americans, who are usually more than self-assured. They request of the world community that it send "stabilization forces" to Iraq, then they reject the idea of the enlistment of UN peacekeepers.

In a word, what Vladimir Putin warned George Bush and Tony Blair about is coming to pass. Operations like the Iraq operation, outside of the UN framework and without the approval of the international community, inevitably result in a protracted military conflict and the growth of an extremist mood among the citizenry. It is strange that the Americans time after time make the same mistake twice. After all, the ethnic conflict in Kosovo continues to smolder, and a veritable war is being fought in Afghanistan. Now, in addition, Iraq also....

We have a wealth of experience of the fight against so-called "internal resistance" and we remember that it took almost 10 years after the Great Patriotic War to smash the "Forest Brothers" in the Baltic and the Bandera people in the Carpathians. The counterterrorist operation in Chechnya has been continuing for several years now. I can predict that something similar awaits the Americans in Iraq. Saddam Husayn, who has gone underground, is already calling on the Shi'ite majority to begin a "jihad against the American and British occupation forces."

It is by no means to Russia's advantage, meanwhile, for the Americans to become bogged down in a large-scale guerrilla war. They are objectively at this time our principal allies in the fight against international terrorism. But realities forced them to view many things through other eyes. We recall how for a long time some politicians in the United States called the leaders of the Chechen bandit elements "fighters for independence." Now Shamil Basayev and Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev have been declared in the United States "dangerous international terrorists." They are on the UN Security Council blacklist.

Now the Americans are attempting to rectify the situation in Iraq, enlisting the military forces of Poland, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and some other countries, shoving aside here those that advocated a political solution of the Iraq problem and the predominant role of the United Nations. But the sooner the US leadership comes to understand that it cannot manage without the United Nations, the better it will be both for itself and for Iraq. It is the international community that should be displaying concern to ensure that a legitimate authority be elected and that normal living conditions be created.

I believe that Russia also should be taking part in bringing order to bear and in restoring the economy of this country. We have our own interests-both political and economic-in Iraq and in the Middle East in general. Iraq owes us about $8 billion. In addition, we have traditionally had strong economic ties to this country. Our oil and construction companies are hoping to resume them not in the distant, but in the very near, future.

But we are not about to solicit from the United States some indulgences in Iraq, of course. If we do go there, it will be under the flag of the United Nations. There is UN Security Council Resolution 1144, which makes it possible to make such a decision. Russia has trained peacekeeping forces, which could be airlifted to this country rapidly.

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