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The Bush administration has agreed to sit around a negotiating table with official representatives of Iran and Syria next month -- as part of a planned regional conference in Baghdad to discuss ways to stabilize Iraq.
The U.S. Congress was far too polite in questioning General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker during their long-awaited Iraq report. For me, the more important questions are the regional ones. What real, long-term plans does the U.S. have for our part of the world? Do any of the people of the region, not to mention the Iraqis themselves, have any say in our own future?
By Lisa Schirch
Americans and Iraqis tell two different stories about the war in Iraq. Most Iraqis say that the U.S.-led invasion and occupation have fueled violence. The dominant American story is that U.S. forces are curbing sectarian violence and making things better in Iraq. This gap in perception severely undermines public diplomacy efforts throughout the Muslim world, and demands much greater effort toward understanding the Iraqi point of view.
Recently, I was sipping tea with a group of Iraqi community development workers in Amman, Jordan. The conversation shifted from a focus on their attempts to reconcile Sunni, Shi'a and Kurdish leaders in villages across Iraq to the larger question of how to reconcile U.S. and Iraqi narratives about the war.
When I first saw images of Saddam's statue being torn down five years ago today, I was struck by two conflicting emotions. I was happy, of course. But deep inside, I felt sadness that Iraqis had not been able to take down the statue of tyranny, that we couldn't do it ourselves because we didn't have then a united, trusted leadership who could gather all Iraqis and move them toward change.
Today, five years later we still don't have this leadership.
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