ABSTRACT
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top American military commander in Iraq, stepped up to the plate. “We’ve got to be realistic,” he said at a press conference in Iraq. Lt. Gen. Sanchez says his forces will become more “lethal,” but that will only turn more ordinary Iraqis against the Americans. There are all kinds of ideas floating around about a stronger governing council, or empowering one Iraqi who could lead the country; but none of the Iraqis on the council has any real political roots in Iraqi society. In Iraq alone, many imperial powers—the Ottoman Turks and the British, to name only two—managed this region, before being thrown out, by co-opting the tribes. Meanwhile, according to the most recent Gallup poll in Iraq, more than half of Baghdad’s residents do not believe the United States will allow them to fashion their political future without the direct influence of Washington.
