Showdown in Sharm

November 22, 2004

Readers of this column know that off and on for weeks I’ve been writing about the importance of the conference that begins today in Egypt’s Sharm el Sheikh about Iraq. It’s virtually an all-parties meeting on Iraq’s future, attended by countries as diverse as Iran and France.

The New York Times finally deigned to mention that it was happening, the very day of the conference itself.

The Times reports:

Washington has tired to ensure that nothing at this conference goes beyond [UN Resolution 1546]. It blocked France, for example, which had pushed hard to include representatives of other Iraqi political parties and non-governmental organizations.

But when did the Times report on those French efforts? When did the American media bother to mention that a big, behind-the-scenes struggle was underway? The French, backed by Egypt and others, wanted to invite the Iraqi opposition to the meeting. Was there any discussion of this in public in Washington? Did the media ask the White House about it? No.

The Bush idea for Iraq is to send the Marines rumbling over the opposition and an election that cements the power of the Shiite fundamentalists. It’s a strategy hardly guaranteed to establish a stable Iraq. If the elections are held at all, they will be a sham, and the outcome will lack all credibility. The conference might have been a way to create a unified Iraqi consensus, minus the outright terrorists. Now, it won’t.