Clean hands, bad result

Oh, for the good old days--along with politicians willing to take risks:

...[There is] a tale of intrigue and indecision by the United States over whether to mount a covert-action program to confront Iran's political meddling [in Iraq]. Such a plan was crafted by the Central Intelligence Agency and then withdrawn -- because of opposition from an unlikely coalition that is said to have included Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who was then House minority leader, and Condoleezza Rice, then national security adviser.

As recounted by former U.S. officials, the story embodies the mix of hubris and naivete that has characterized so much of the Iraq effort. From President Bush on down, U.S. officials enthused about Iraqi democracy while pursuing a course of action that made it virtually certain that Iran and its proxies would emerge as the dominant political force.

The CIA warned in the summer and fall of 2004 that the Iranians were pumping money into Iraq to steer the Jan. 30, 2005, elections toward the coalition of Shiite religious parties known as the United Iraqi Alliance. By one CIA estimate, Iranian covert funding was running at $11 million a week for media and political operations on behalf of candidates who would be friendly to Iran, under the banner of Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. The CIA reported that in the run-up to the election, as many as 5,000 Iranians a week were crossing the border with counterfeit ration cards to register to vote in Iraq's southern provinces.

To counter this Iranian tide, the CIA proposed a political action program, initially at roughly $20 million but with no ceiling. The activities would include funding for moderate Iraqi candidates, outreach to Sunni tribal leaders and other efforts to counter Iranian influence. A covert-action finding was prepared in the fall of 2004 and signed by President Bush. As required by law, senior members of Congress, including Pelosi, were briefed.

But less than a week after the finding was signed, CIA officials were told that it had been withdrawn. Agency officials in Baghdad were ordered to meet with Iraqi political figures and get them to return whatever money had been distributed. Mystified by this turn of events, CIA officers were told that Rice had agreed with Pelosi that the United States couldn't on the one hand celebrate Iraqi democracy and on the other try to manipulate it secretly...

More on the Iranian hand today:

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr on Wednesday ordered his Mahdi Army militia to halt hostilities for six months to restore its credibility in the eyes of Iraqis shaken by a deadly outbreak of Shiite-on-Shiite violence.

[...]

Political analysts saw Sadr's pledge to lay down weapons as damage control after the Karbala clashes, which instilled terror across the country.

"Sadr is likely trying to deflect criticism for the clash in Karbala by blaming the event on rogue elements in the Mahdi Army," said Vali Nasr, a Middle East expert at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey.

Nasr said the Mahdi militia has been expanding and becoming better armed, probably with Iranian assistance, at the same time the U.S. has been building up its forces and counterinsurgency operations against Sunni militants in the last six months.

[...]

Sadr's move also might have been encouraged by Iranian allies alarmed by the intra-Shiite strife, some officials theorize.

"I think Iran might have had a say in it," said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of parliament. "Iran is keen to have unity among the Shiites."

The last sentence is the essence of the problem. More problems:

"The United States considers Iran an enemy, while on the contrary the Iraqi government thinks of the Iranian government as a friend," Othman said.

[...]

President Bush, in a speech Tuesday in Reno, reiterated accusations that Iran supplies weapons and training to Shiite militants in Iraq.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for his part, predicted that the U.S. military operation in Iraq would fail, leaving a power vacuum that Iran would be willing to help fill...

Mark C.

Upperdate: A (UK) soldier's story:

General Sir Mike Jackson, the head of the British Army during the invasion of Iraq, has launched a scathing attack on the United States for the way it handled the post-war administration of the country...

Posted by markc at August 30, 2007 08:40 PM