Home |
Site Index |
FAQs |
Contact |
RSS
|
Podcast
home > by publication type > podcasts > Meese: Bottom-Up Reconciliation in Iraq
Email
| Interviewee: | Col. Michael J. Meese |
|---|---|
| Interviewer: | Greg Bruno |
September 7, 2007
Efforts to forge alliances between collation troops and Sunni tribes in Iraq have created localized pockets of security, experts say, and the approach is likely to be a centerpiece of U.S. Commander Lt. Gen. David Petraeus’ testimony to Congress on September 10 and 11. Army Col. Michael Meese, head of Social Sciences at West Point and an advisor to Petraeus, says violence in Iraq is down due to the cooperation between U.S. soldiers and local tribes. But he warns security gains would be lost in the event of a “non-conditions-based withdrawal.”
Additionally, this localized approach to security has implications for national reconciliation, Meese says. As provincial conditions improve, politicians in Baghdad are being compelled to react. “This local turning is forcing demands on the national government, and that’s leading to the national government starting to do some of their own reconciliation,” the colonel says. “Even if it is not reconciliation and the de-Baathification law and the provisional powers law and that sort of thing, that meets the criteria of the benchmarks, it is a slow step in the right direction.”
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
I understand that I may access this podcast solely for my personal use. Any other use of the file and its content, including display, distribution, reproduction, or alteration in any form for any purpose, whether commercial, noncommercial, educational, or promotional, is expressly prohibited without the written permission of the copyright owner, the Council on Foreign Relations. For more information, write webmaster@cfr.org.
In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.
America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.
In The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.
Complete list of CFR Books.
This report argues that the United States must lead with domestic action on climate change and proposes a U.S. negotiating strategy for a global UN climate agreement that includes commitments from all major economies, while also promoting a less formal Partnership for Climate Cooperation that would focus the world's largest emitters on implementing aggressive emissions reductions.
This Task Force report examines changes in Latin America and in U.S. influence there, while taking account of the region's enduring importance to the United States. The Task Force offers an agenda for U.S. policy toward Latin America and identifies four critical areas that should provide the basis of a new U.S. approach.
About Independent Task Forces at the Council.
Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.
