Last throes?
Blame it on Joe Namath. Americans have a tendency of declaring victory prematurally, whether it's "Mission Accomplished" or "last throes." Here is my take on why the Iraq situation is strenuous, why this should have been expected (regardless of pre-war planning) and why democracy building there could be a historical achievement.My question to the critics and supporters of nation building in Iraq is simply, how could one build a democratic government painlessly in a country lacking no only the tradition of democratic rule, but also the tradition of being one unified nation? Iraq, in its present state, has only existed for about 85 years as the wet dream of some British map maker after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Its boundary was drawn and held together with intimidation and coercion to contain the relgious and ethnic tensions the country has experienced ever since.
Off the top of my head, I made of list of recent democracy that had experienced some violence or military conflict in its conception and has comparable size to Iraq. Japan traces its mythical origin back millinia, but the beginning of modern Japan can be confidently pinpointed to Meiji Restoration in 1860's. Korea also had thousands of years of history, and a unified Korea kingdom had existed for more than 500 years before the Korean War. Modern Germany can find its root in the German Federation from the early 1800's. All of these nations had a much longer history as a unified nation state than Iraq before they took on the task of democratic governance under the supervision of some form of foreign military presence. Furthermore, I don't need to point out that Japan, Korea and Germany are much more homogenous in terms of ethnicity and religion than Iraq.
So why should a democratic Iraq be easy work? This has nothing to do with the fact it is a Muslim country and the supposed conflicts between Islam and democracy. To build a unified Iraq while overcome these internal divisions is no small task. To have a democratic government that respect and embrace the diversity of tradition and ideas would be even more remarkable. Perhaps too ambitious, but that decision was made for us 3 years ago.
posted by hedgehog @ 10:09 AM
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