Congressman Leonard Boswell says the situation in Iraq is so precarious, a civil war may break out if the U.S. doesn’t take the right steps to help establish a credible government. “I don’t see how we can participate in a civil war,” Boswell says. “I think that’s a no-win situation.” Boswell, a retired military officer, was one of 15 Democrats who met privately today (Wednesday) with President Bush, Vice President Cheney and other key members of the Bush Administration involved in decisions about Iraq. “The attack phase is over…we’re now an occupation force. We’ve got to face up to it,” Boswell says.
Boswell says he asked the Secretary of State, who was sitting in on the meeting, to do more to make sure Iraqis have the right tools to form a democratic government.
“Do they have a department of agriculture? Do they have a department of energy? Do they have a department of transportation and on and on? They can’t succeed if they don’t have that,” Boswell says. “I got the impression that’s yet to be done so they’re going to have a lot of pressure on them in the next four or five months and if they don’t succeed, I suspect they’ll end up with civil war.”
As many as 70 percent of Iraqis are expected to vote in their nationwide December 15th elections, and Boswell says there are enough trained Iraqi soldiers and police now that it’s time to start bringing some U.S. soldiers home. Boswell says if the Iraqis don’t adjust their constitution and make it “all-inclusive” so minorities have a voice in the government, the Iraqis will have a civil war on their hands. Boswell is a Democrat from Des Moines