Democracy truly denied in Iraq?
Long-time JWN readers probably recall how much I hoped that the January 30th elections could provide a way for a credible, accountable-to-Iraqis administration to emerge inside Iraq, while also allowing a (relatively) violence-free way for the US administration to disengage from trying to control the affairs of that very troubled country.
It took a long time, after January 30, for the Iraqi parties to be able to reach agreement on the identity of the new Prime Minister and the make-up of the new government. While they dithered, I put up the 'Democracy Denied in Iraq' counter onto JWN's sidebar.
Then finally, in late April, Ibrahim Jaafari was sworn in in front of the new elected Assembly as PM (though it took a little while longer for him to name some of his ministers.)
I took the counter down.
Today, after reading this account of the new "Iraqi" Foreign Minister openly and imho ignominiously appealing for greater US aid in crafting an Iraqi constitution, I decided it is time for the DDI counter to go back up.
That link is to a piece by Robin Wright in today's WaPo. She writes:
- In talks with Vice President Cheney yesterday and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari requested greater U.S. and coalition help in crafting a new constitution. The deadline is now less than three months away, but deliberations have been slowed as Iraq still works on the composition of a constitutional committee.
With time running out for writing the constitution and then holding elections in December for a permanent government, Zebari warned that the United States has withdrawn too much, leaving the new government struggling to cope and endangering the long-term prospects for success.
- -- to " to help bring the Sunni minority into the political process" (!)
-- for " additional staff and resources to accelerate the creation of a new Iraqi army and police force", and
-- to "speed up the confirmation of its new ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad".
Now, I'm not going to argue that having a local US viceroy in place to tell the Iraqi politicians what to do (which is exactly the way that Jon Lee Anderson, writing recently in The New Yorker described Khalilzad behaving in Afghanistan) is necessarily desirable... But you would think, wouldn't you, that the Bush administration would want to have an accountable chain of command in place in Baghdad to help it to manage the extremely strategically sensitive situation there?
Well, you might think that, if you thought they actually wanted to have some kind of an orderly transition there....
As it is, the disgracefully "AWOL/negligent" policy that Washington has been pursuing inside Iraq seems almost to have been designed to bring about a situation of ever greater instability and distrust within the country.... (Perhaps with the ulterior aim of turning round to a formerly accusing world and saying, "So! You see those Iraqis can't govern themselves. That's why we simply have no option except to stay there...." And on Wednesday the Security Council, to its great shame, seemed to buy into that argument when it renewed the "mandate" that it graciously gave the US-led forces forces in Iraq for a further --slightly indeterminate?-- term.)
And the result of all these machinations?
Certainly, the desire that the majority of Iraqi adults so clearly showed back on January 30th to have an orderly, nationally legitimate, and accountable governing system in place in their country has been most cruelly thwarted.
Now, you can argue (and I'm happy to do this) that Ibrahim Jaafari has been a great disappointment as the head of government.
You can argue that most Kurdish politicians have been outrageously unhelpful.
You can argue that many Sunni politicians have been disorganized, or intransigent, or worse.
But at the end of the day, under the Geneva Conventions ("quaint" or not), the US as occupying power has overall responsibility for the welfare of the country's people and the integrity of its re-emerging political system.
The Iraqi people gave them a wonderful chance-- on a plate, as it were!-- by virtue of their participation in the January 30 elections...
There could have been a political process of integrity and hopefulness that emerged from the election of that day.
But no. The Bush administration cared only for the "form" of having one single democractic "exercise"... the vote of that day. They seemed to care not one whit for the true nub of democracy in Iraq.... That is, the institution of empowered and accountable self-government there. Indeed, looking at the wilful recklessness with which the Bushies have treated political affairs inside Iraq since January 30, you might have to conclude that they've been actively hostile to the emergence of any empowered self-government there.
I think I've written before-- both here and elsewhere-- that the Bushies have been handed two great chances inside Iraq. The first was in the immediate aftermath of the toppling of the Saddam regime, when the country was, effectively, theirs to remake. As we know, they blew that chance-- badly.
The second was with the amazing (even if far from universal) level of trust that the Iraqi people put in the electoral process of last January 30. And now, the Bushies have blown that chance, too. This time, the repurcussions-- inside Iraq, and for the Washington's whole broader Potemkin-project of encouraging "democratization" in the Middle East-- will be even worse.
They were very lucky indeed to get even a second chance. No-one can realistically expect that they will ever be given a third.
NY Times..
"There you have it in a nutshell. Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, drunk with power and insufficiently restrained, took the nation on hair-raising journeys that were as unnecessary as they were destructive. Now, in the first years of the 21st century, George W. Bush is doing the same."
US man speaks out what his saw in Iraq for one year and what he treated by his US friends….
http://win20ca.audiovideoweb.com/ca20win15004/adelgado1_300k.wmv
Listen to your Military guy and take his word to all US citizen let them the reality what they doing there in Iraq.....
"So! You see those Iraqis can't govern themselves. That's why we simply have no option except to stay there."
Senator John McCain had said back in
October. Iraq, he said, is “a huge pot of honey that’s attracting a lot of flies.”
No comment
I think Salah is absolutely right; that is the 19th-century colonialist mentality in which "enlightened" Western nations think they know better than the Native "savages" who practice all these horrific things. Colonialism is alive and well in the Bush administration.
“Better than the Native "savages" who practice all these horrific things"
If there are "Savages" in this century I things you know who they are better than me, but not the Muslims, the Arabs and finally not the Iraqis......
Just go and read your history well..... And it will tell you who they are without of there inventions and contributions to the world may your are not like what you live in.
“All these horrific things”
Like Abu-Grab you no who did it, just for your attention the Guantánamo Bay
It’s not in Iraq, who they did from your native Civilized …..
http://web.amnesty.org/pages/guantanamobay-index-eng
Salah, I hope that Eternal Hope's point was not lost on you, in the fuzzy medium of internet-text: it was not that this was the writer's opinion or realistic description of things, but as a description of how those in the administration, and colonialists generally, seem to view things. And, how they design really bad policies on the basis of those views.
I wish I could say that this was just the opinion of those on the 'other side'. In fact, I think it shows up on 'our' side as well, in the basic assumptions about how things ought to be done, such as how reform projects 'ought' to be done in the ME more generally ...
And a further thought ... if I were a guerilla leader opposed to US action in my country, I would take great comfort in how things have been done in Iraq so far. Even in those corners where people want to help, without political interference, such assumptions raise their ugly heads.
Finally: A personal thanks for your posts here. I don't agree with everything you say, but I think you have a good eye for what, in the US press especially, points out the problems with what is going on. The Herbert column you linked to was a great example.
windinthewhistle
Thanks for your words, The only thing I feel sad about it, US don’t care about the Iraqis (Human Life) for example my brother in law his boy 15 Years lost his hand you know how just he rushed to the frond door when US tanks moves on main street, and so on, and all other things which daily read in the news
Most people when commens they never experience the war and the consequences on the human, they think it the plan on paper can works perfectly on the ground! this not experiment on chemicals or Physics or material they are human as you would like to be respected and loved they also like same, no differences we are all human we did not choose to be American or Iraqi or African, we are all live in on planet believe me the life so short every one when reach to last day of his live he will realised we are so stupid and so mad we care about this live and we forgot to work for 2nd live hope will be the haven to all,
God Bless
Helena -- since you mentioned the Jon Lee Anderson profile of Karzai, you probably noticed, for what is it worth, that Karzai is very much in agreement with you that bringing people to trial for past crimes in that war-torn country won't help.
"Now either we have to bring people in to trial and seek justice or we have to forget about it, and live a life by forgetting the past. . . . if you ask me as the President of Afghanistan, then I have to say, 'Peace gives you continuation of life. Justice does not, necessarily.'"
I thought this was the most interesting piece of the profile -- though I concluded from Anderson's description that Karzai will be lucky to escape with his unprotected head sometime down the road.
Salah, I want to thank you for your posts here, too. Especially, today, this last one of yours which spells out for all the non-Iraqis among exactly how different matters are to people who are citizens of the war-ravaged land.
I know you disagree fairly strongly with some of what I write here. (And I disagree with some of what you write.) But the fact that you come back here and persistently and in a non-confrontational way express your viewpoint, and give us some really interesting links, really enriches the discussion here and helps to educate me and all the readers.
I have lived in a country at war (Lebanon in the 1970s). I did experience a lot of the pain of that, quite close up. But at the end of the day it was only indirectly--through marriage-- my country. That fact, and the passage of time, have probably blunted my feeling of the sharp pain and despair of the situation, similar to what I am sure you and Shirin are feeling for your country today.
I'm so sorry about your brother-in-law's boy.
I am hoping and praying and also trying to work really hard to bring the the occupation troops out of your country so your people have a chance of regaining peace. You probably think I'm not doing enough, or not doing the right things, to achieve that. But we should definitely carry on "talking" through the blog in this way. God keep you and all those you love safe from now on, if possible. And I'm really, really sorry that we in the anti-war movement here in the US have been so unsuccessful until now.
Dear Salah,
Your words touched me, as they often do.
I've seen my fair share of war, and been in many war zones all over the world. Underneath all the intellectual talk of war, of geopolitics, there is this reality of what war does to people. It is revolting, pure and simple. A waste of lives, of potential, of human creativity. You said it much better than I could.
For what it's worth, I think many in the US *would* care about Iraqis, about your brother-in-law's son, about children and brothers and sisters no different from theirs. It is not an excuse for them that they do not; it is just a fact that they do not yet know. The first they will hear about it will be from American soldiers, describing their nightmares, and they will not know for a long time what sense to make of what they are hearing.
I like to thank many of you that fell my feeling or they commenting to me and I would apologies in case my writing or my comments offended some one in this blog, if some one see that please its due to my English not perfect it’s my 2nd language, I new my sentences in structure looking not right or hard to you.
Please accept my apology I really enjoying to share with you the thoughts that in the end give better understanding to human around the world and you view things better, thanks to the Internet.
Salah