Sumaidaie Refutes Brzezinski

The Iraqi ambassador to the U.S., Samir al-Sumaidaie, utterly rejected former Carter National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski on CNN's Late Edition yesterday. Here's the exchange between host Wolf Blitzer and Dr. Brzezinski:

Blitzer: Dr. Brzezinski, on Iraq, the sectarian violence, today, especially, is brutal, car bombings, Shiite militia gunmen going into Sunni neighborhoods and randomly slaughtering people who seem to have Shia names. Is there any hope, from your perspective, that things can turn out positively, at least in the short term in Iraq?

Brzezinski: Not if the occupation keeps going on. Let me just read you a couple of passages from what the Iraqi national security adviser said. He said, "Iraqis see foreign troops as occupiers rather than liberators. It is their presence that's forcing Iraqis to join the resistance. The removal of foreign troops will legitimate Iraq's government." Removal of foreign troops will legitimate the government. The point is, this civil war is not going to stop as long as the occupation persists.

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Blitzer: Over how long a period of time?

Brzezinski: Well, that is what I have emphasized repeatedly. It's something to be negotiated between us and the Iraqis, seriously negotiated and then jointly announced. But only then will a legitimate, real Iraqi government emerge. The people we now have as the Iraqi government spend most of their time in the so-called green zone, which is an American fortress. And they're viewed, essentially, as American puppets. The reason the Kurds have control over the north is that they are an authentic set of leaders. We don't have authentic Iraqi leaders in Baghdad.

Here's Blitzer's exchange with Ambassador Sumaidaie:

Blitzer: You heard Dr. Brzezinski suggest, just a few moments ago, that the most important thing that could be done to lift up the Iraqi government is to see the foreign military, the U.S. and coalition forces, the so-called occupation, withdraw, to give new credibility to the Iraqi government. Is he right?

Sumaidaie: With all due respect to dr. Brzezinski, he is absolutely wrong, because, if we go that way, it will be total victory for the terrorists. It will not enable the Iraqi government. The Iraqi government does not need to be legitimized. This is an elected Iraqi government. Remember, 70 percent of the Iraqi electorate went out and voted for it. So it requires no legitimacy from anybody else.

Dr. Brzezinski should be ignored by the American media, though I know that won't happen. Once you hold a position of power in a Democratic administration, you're forever hailed as an expert, even ones who had disastrous records like Dr. Brzezinski's. Compare this Brzezinski statement:

Removal of foreign troops will legitimate the government. The point is, this civil war is not going to stop as long as the occupation persists.

with this Sumaidaie refutation:

It will not enable the Iraqi government. The Iraqi government does not need to be legitimized. This is an elected Iraqi government. Remember, 70 percent of the Iraqi electorate went out and voted for it. So it requires no legitimacy from anybody else.

Is Dr. Brzezinski suggesting that a clean election held by the Iraqi people doesn't confer legitimacy on the Iraqi government? If he is, what standard should be used to measure its legitimacy? If he is, what popularly elected government is legitimate? Is Dr. Brzezinski infering that it's only legitimate if 'the world community' says it's legitimate? Or is he infering that it's only legitimate when 100 percent of the Iraqi people, including the insurgents, say it's legitimate?

Demanding people like myself want to know what Dr. Brzezinski's benchmark is for legitimizing administrations.

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Posted Monday, July 10, 2006 2:24 PM

June 2006 Posts

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