Hey, a Job for Cheney!

well said.
-----Original Message-----

>From: Owen Densmore <owen at backspaces.net>
>Sent: Mar 11, 2006 2:12 PM
>To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Friam <friam at redfish.com>
>Subject: [FRIAM] Hey, a Job for Cheney!
>
> From Tom Friedman's latest, a nifty job for chain saw Cheney, attached.
>
>     -- Owen
>
>Mr. Nasty, Brutish and Short-Tempered; [Op-Ed]
>Thomas L. Friedman.
>Copyright New York Times Company Mar 10, 2006
>
>I have a job for Dick Cheney.
>
>No, no, really. This is not another hunting joke. It's serious: Iraq  
>is drifting aimlessly, if not toward civil war then toward a violent  
>political stalemate. If Iraqis can't produce a minimally effective  
>national unity government now, America can look forward to baby-
>sitting this violent stalemate far into the future.
>
>If we want to avoid that, it's time for some dramatic new thinking  
>and acting. To put it in a nutshell: It is not time for the U.S. to  
>leave Iraq, but it is time for the U.S. to start threatening to leave  
>Iraq.
>
>When Iraq was just violent, but the political situation seemed to be  
>stumbling forward, it was possible to believe that a decent outcome  
>could still be achieved. But when Iraq is increasingly violent, with  
>ethnic and religious rivals murdering one another and the politicians  
>squabbling endlessly, there is no reason for optimism. U.S. forces in  
>Iraq can't be held hostage by the notion that Iraqis may have a civil  
>war if we leave. They are already having a little civil war, and if  
>they are determined to have a big civil war, I prefer that they have  
>it without us. But we need to make one last big push to find an  
>alternative.
>
>The Bush team needs to stop telling itself that the news media are  
>not reporting the good news in Iraq. That's utter nonsense. And it  
>needs to stop acting like a spectator as events there unfold, with  
>the secretaries of state and defense making one-day stopovers and  
>then disappearing. It is time for this administration to start taking  
>responsibility for the outcome of this war, and not just dump it all  
>on the military.
>
>There is no military solution. There is only a political solution,  
>and it will require some big-time diplomacy to pull off.
>
>We need to bring together all the newly elected Iraqi leaders for a  
>national reconciliation conference -- outside Baghdad. We should lock  
>them in a room and not let them out until they either produce a  
>national unity government, so Americans will want to stay in Iraq, or  
>fail to produce that government, which would signal that it's time to  
>warm up the bus.
>
>Those choices need to be put to the Iraqis in the most frank, tough-
>minded way by the most nasty, brutish and short-tempered senior  
>official we've got -- and that is Dick ''Darth Vader'' Cheney. Mr.  
>Veep, this Bud's for you.
>
>Richard Holbrooke masterfully played this role in bringing an end to  
>the Bosnian civil war at the Dayton peace conference, and maybe Mr.  
>Cheney could do the same for Iraq, with the help of our very skilled  
>ambassador in Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad. We need an Iraqi Dayton --  
>now. And we need a really bad dude to make it work.
>
>Mr. Cheney could open the meeting with his low growl by telling the  
>Sunnis: ''Look, you guys don't want to compromise, fine. Then we'll  
>just leave you to the tender mercies of the Shiites, who vastly  
>outnumber you.''
>
>To the Shiites: ''You want to rule Iraq and control the oil without  
>real regard to the Sunnis? Well, you're going to rule over nothing  
>but a boiling pot, unless you compromise.''
>
>And to the Kurds he could say: ''You've behaved most responsibly.  
>Stick with it. If Iraq falls apart, we will make sure you're taken  
>care of. We won't ignore the fact that you've built an impressively  
>decent, democratizing society in your region.''
>
>After getting their attention, Mr. Cheney could start cracking heads  
>on the key issues:
>
>First, the Shiite alliance has to come up with a new candidate for  
>prime minister, acceptable to all parties.
>
>Second, the constitution has to be revised so the Sunnis do not feel  
>that the Kurds and Shiites are breaking off their own chunks of Iraq,  
>along with their oil resources.
>
>Third, the Sunnis need to produce a credible plan for ending their  
>insurgency.
>
>Fourth, the parties have to agree on an inner cabinet, with ministers  
>from each community, which will make all key decisions in  
>coordination with the new prime minister.
>
>Fifth, this inner cabinet has to draw up a plan for governing Iraq  
>from the center -- and not from any one faction.
>
>Mr. Cheney could then conclude: ''Read my lips -- these are the  
>minimum requirements for a decent government in Iraq. If Iraqis step  
>up, Americans will want to stick it out. If Iraqis won't step up,  
>Americans will want to step out. The American people are ready to  
>midwife your democracy, but not to baby-sit your civil war.''
>
>Mr. Cheney, this is your Kodak moment. Iraqis are notoriously  
>difficult and fractious. You've got the time and the mean streak to  
>deal with them. They'll get serious if you're in the room. But just  
>in case, bring along your shotgun. This is a good job for someone  
>with bad aim.
>
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