A Hopeless Case? Recommendations for Action for a Political Handling of the Iraq Conflict MICHAEL BRÖNING A nyone following the political debate on Iraq in recent months would have been able to observe almost daily how in Washington the bound­ary between analysis and calculated wishful thinking was being trans­gressed. Weeks went by before the us authorities were able to finally make up their mind officially to recognize the existence of a»civil war« in Mesopotamia. The fact that today this is regarded as progress by some observers reveals something of the reputation of the us government but little about the current status quo in Iraq. This admission did not come from nowhere: in Washington the underlying tense relationship between »let’s-get-the-job-done« rhetoric and the constantly rising number of victims was becoming ever more unbearable. Today as a result the pendulum seems to be swinging in the other direction – the trend is towards»blaming the victim.« Characteristic of this perception is not least the recent attempt by prophet of the invasion Fouad Ajami to sell the campaign as a»gift to the Iraqis« who rather ungratefully do not appreciate it. 1 Leitmotif:»We had the best of inten­tions.« After the»will to illusion« of the neo-conservative chief strategists – according to Christoph Reuter in International Politics – now appears to be at least diminished, Iraq is being portrayed outside the White House increasingly as a hopeless case. 2 One important voice in this is the influ­ential specialist journal Foreign Affairs. In its March–April issue it an­nounced apodictically the impossibility of stopping the»civil war« that has broken out in Iraq. 3 1. Fouad Ajami: The Foreigner’s Gift: The Americans, the Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq. Free Press 2006. 2. Christoph Reuter: Irak – Die Welt als Wille zum Wahn. In: Internationale Politik, Januar 2007. 3. James D. Fearon: Iraq’s Civil War. In: Foreign Affairs, March/April 2007. Similar evaluations may also be found in Germany. Cf. Christoph von Marschall: Afghan­istan vor der Irakisierung? In: Merkur, 61/2007, p. 139. ipg 3/2007 Bröning, Iraq 69