The Bush Administration's turnover of power to the interim Iraqi government two days early was a brilliant maneuver. Symbolically, it told the world that the transition is ahead of schedule. Concretely, it pulled the rug out from under any wave of terrorism that might have been planned for June 30. Historically, it lets the record show America had no imperial designs on Mesopotamia.
The return of sovereignty to Iraqis might be best seen as a progression. There are more than 100,000 U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines still in Iraq. They didn't get to go home with Paul Bremer. A permanent constitution has yet to be ratified. National elections aren't scheduled until 2006. But with the handover, even though it's not a full handover, one hopes that future terrorist attacks in Iraq will be increasingly seen by the Arab world as attacks on the people of Iraq and not attacks on the United States.
I'm skeptical that a free, stable, and democratic society will emerge from an Iraq artificially constructed by colonial powers just seventy or so years ago, tormented by decades of brutal oppression, recovering from numerous recent wars, suffering from centuries of a backward cultural climate, and living under a faith largely inhospitable to self-government and religious pluralism. Here's hoping that I'm wrong.
This interim Iraqi government scares me. They're going to be useless. They're so awful I wouldn't even hire them to work as fluffers at a low volume rest area.
-Lou.
Yes, our Republic did not just appear out of thin air - it was born from our convictions and world view that we held as a people. The birth of the American Republic had violence, but it was violence FOR liberty - the only violence I see in Iraq is against any attempt to make it a truly free country. That’s not a good sign.
“Our Constitution was only made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” --John Adams
I hope you're right too, Dan.
But John Adams certainly was right that the sort of limited federal republican government that we hold dear is not gonna get off the ground without the right societal moorings in morality and religion. Certainly there are a lot of moral and religious people in Iraq, but the question is whether the vast majority of Iraqis are in fact steady in those convictions, especially to the point of refuting and resolutely defeating extremist political influences which hijack the Islamic faith for the bloodiest tyrannical aims of theocrats.
Interesting program on the History channel last night on how Germany fared after WWII with regard to adjusting to its new role as a peace time nation.
Lots of problems. The least of which was a terrorist movement designed to kill the spirit of the forces trying to re-build the country and the spirit of the German people themselves.
Ultimately, it turned out that the German people had seen enough killing and turned on their self-proclaimed liberators. Apparently, enough was enough.
They did a nice job juxtaposing this with modern day Iraq.
It took Germany about ten years to come together into the democratic republic that it is today and it may take that long in Iraq.
The media reports all of the bad but the truth is that most of the population are glad to see Saddam gone and will stand up to erradicate his left over cronies.
This will take time intensive process not a quick solution.
