Editorial: Doomsayers on Iraq ignore the full story
September 22, 2003
It is easy and tempting to see the glass of Iraqi reconstruction as half-empty rather than half-full, and there are plenty of people with a vested interest in doing just that. Certainly, events such as Saturday's vicious assassination attempt on Aquila al-Hashima – one of three women members of Iraq's Governing Council, and a strong contender to become Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations – lend volume to the voices of those who say Iraq is going to hell in a handbasket. But they will be disappointed, because it is not. And the fact that 82 American soldiers and 11 Britons have been killed in guerilla attacks, tragic and disturbing as it is, does not license comparisons with Vietnam, or the application of terms such as "quagmire".
There is no doubting that the terrorist attacks designed to undermine the democratisation of Iraq – most notably, the bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad, and the assassination of Shi'ite leader Ayataollah Mohammed al-Hakim – are the work of Baathist elements loyal to Saddam Hussein. Opposition to the work of the Governing Council and the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority is formidable. But it is concentrated within the so-called "Sunni Triangle" stretching north and west from Baghdad. Under Hussein, the minority Sunni community enjoyed a monopoly over power, and used the Baath party as its instrument for domination. This is no longer the case: Shi'ite Muslims, who are almost two-thirds of the population, are duly represented on the Governing Council, as are the Kurds. Those groups – and they constitute the majority of Iraqis – feel liberated, not oppressed. The first scientific poll of Iraqi opinion showed a minority of Sunnis, but a majority of Shi'ites, were of the view that democracy would work for Iraqis. Asked to name the country they would like Iraq to model its new government on, more Iraqis chose the US than any other model.
Those in the West who want to talk down the advances that have been made in Iraq should consider all that, along with the fact that 150 free newspapers now flourish in what was, until six months ago, a totalitarian dictatorship. These developments can be a model and inspiration for democratic movements elsewhere in the region, including in Iran and Saudi Arabia – neighbouring countries that, fearful of just such an outcome, are doing their worst to destabilise Iraq. They would have been least happy with another finding of the poll, which is that 60 per cent of Iraqis do not want an Islamic government.
The Iraqi road map to independence and democracy reaches a critical turn this week, with debate at the United Nations on a US-led multinational security force, and President George W. Bush to address the General Assembly tomorrow. At a preliminary summit between the leaders of Germany, Britain, and France on the weekend, there seemed to be in-principle agreement on a multinational security force, but important disagreements on the timetable for the transfer of sovereignty to Iraq. French President Jacques Chirac has the view that such a transfer can occur within months, which is unrealistic, and reflects the luxury of having observed the liberation and early reconstruction of Iraq from afar. Not even the coalition of the willing expected Hussein's army and police forces to disintegrate as quickly and as fully as they did. Rebuilding those forces, a key to Iraq's secure future, will be a painstaking task: the occupying forces hope to train 35,000 Iraqi police in Hungary over the next two years, and to have 20,000 trained Iraqi soldiers a year from now. So far, with the help of US, British, and Australian officers, almost 1000 soldiers have been trained.
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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,7333061%255E7583,00.html
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