[Opinion] America in Quagmire

˝Departments of the Bush administration are now acting like high school gangs. The administration`s Iraqi policy all but disappeared. National security advisor Condoleezza Rice, who is supposed to play an arbitrator role between internationalists and unilateralists, is not doing her job at all,˝ wrote Morin Dawood, a columnist with The New York Times two days ago. She is not the only one who is raising concern over the Bush administration`s Iraqi policy. Editorial writers like Thomas Freedman and Paul Krugman have already expressed grave concern over what is happening in Iraq.

26 days of battles, 138 death tolls and $48 billion war costs, the U.S. boasted as it declared the end of the war in Iraq on May 1. George W. Bush was bragging that the victory came at the least costs. With the declaration, the world`s only superpower seemed to have its prime years ahead. The bragging did not last long, however. Now it seems that the country is trapped in a quagmire called Iraq. Iraq seems to be in a state of civil war, with terror attacks jolting the country almost everyday. The number of deaths of American soldiers after the war already exceeded that during the war. And costs of reconstruction are soaring every passing day. It takes $4 billion a month to maintain 136,000 American soldiers in the country. U.S. governor Paul Bremer is now saying that it will take tens of billions of dollar to rebuild Iraq next year.

As Iraq is increasingly seen as an obstacle to Bush`s winning the presidential election next year, hawks in the administration are now softening their hard stance. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who had insisted for the last five years upon a regime change in Iraq, said last week, ˝We could accept UN leadership of the international force in Iraq.˝ It is almost a turnabout from the earlier stage of the war when the country pushed ahead with its war without U.N. sanction. Richard Perle, a leading Pentagon adviser and architect of the attack on Iraq, also said that power should be handed over to the Iraqis as fast as possible. Washington has yet to make its position clear, however, despite all the buzzes.

North Korea must have keen interest in developments in Iraq. As the U.S. is increasingly bogged down to the quagmire, Pyongyang can earn more time to turn the table. With the U.S. presidential election set for next year, it has every reason to feel relieved. Yet, it must remember one thing. To the U.S., Iraq and North Korea are two different stories. The 6-nation dialog is an entirely different approach, compared to the unilateral launch of the war on Iraq. It depends on Pyongyang, therefore, whether the country will follow in the footsteps of Iraq or not.

Song Mun-hong, Editorial Writer, songmh@donga.com