Now, Who Wants a Representative Democracy? I do! I do!

by

by von

Perhaps there’s some good news coming out of Bremer’s meeting with Bush & Co. As reported in the Washington Post (and elsewhere), “Iraq’s U.S.-appointed Governing Council announced on Saturday a transitional government would take over by the end of June from the U.S.-led powers, in a far swifter restoration of Iraqi sovereignty than first envisaged.”

The Bush Administration’s decision to accelerate the handover of power to Iraqis is surely part-and-parcel to its attempt to avoid becoming the “former” Bush Adminstration in November 2004. That political considerations played a role in this decision, however, does necessarily make it a bad one. An Iraqi-led government could accelerate the development of political parties, which are necessary precursors to democracy. A muscled-up Iraqi regime will also provide another pressure point against the former Ba’athist, Islamists, and God-knows-who-else-ists currently destablizing Iraq.

The rub, of course, is in the details — which haven’t been provided. And we must keep in mind that transferring power to Iraqis shouldn’t limit the short-term sacrifices that still need to be made to set Iraq on the right course. For instance, transferring power to Iraqis does not mean that we can pull out any faster; nor does it mean that we can stop bankrolling Iraq’s reconstruction; nor will it necessary preclude further US casualties. To the contrary, more troops and more money may be required, and more causalities may thereby result.**

In theory, though, this could be a good thing, so long as it is not used as an excuse to pull out of Iraq prematurely. Of course, in theory the Iraqis were going to welcome us as liberators and Iraqi oil wealth will pay for Iraq’s reconstruction — so let’s not break out the Dom yet. As always, hope is not a plan.

*This is one of the (many) reasons why I have consistently argued for international involvement in Iraq (see here, among other places). Indeed, I was all on board with attacking Iraq pretty much from the get-go, if international aid could be secured.

**We must also fight the impulse to ease our burden by turning Chalabi & crew into some sort of Mesopotamian “Shah-by-Committee.” Indeed, the best thing for Iraq may be for Chalabi to return to exile status.

13 thoughts on “Now, Who Wants a Representative Democracy? I do! I do!”

  1. That political considerations played a role in this decision, however, does necessarily mean <-- doesn't... To the left of you, I agree with the above. - Is it not the case that Chirac was pushing this approach a few months ago (not to mention some of the Democratic candidates)? Will that not make it difficult for the administration to actually proceed this way? And while it seems necessary to try this, for lack of anything better, the time-scale doesn't seem realistic to me . I say that not knowing how anyone plans to implement this approach. I wonder if the UN crowd has presented a detailed devolving strategy based on Bosnian/wherever experiences.

  3. I for one am not optimistic that we will be out of Iraq for a long time. Unless we are forced/bail out I don’t see how we can hand over power to any government within a year or two.
    Look at how the gov council is acting, that would be the kind of government we would hand power to. They don’t understand democracy and need some practice before we give them full power.
    We have to be in this thing for the long haul and not give up until we are satisfied.
    There will come a time when Iraqis will ask themselves whether they want and could trust an army capable of defending Iraq from Iran. Will they decide, like the Japanese, Germans and Koreans, that it is better to have the US around to defer attacks? If you look around having a permanent US base is a pretty good indicator of success (Cuba is a weird difference).

  5. Arc, If the violence level drops down, Iraq would make a pretty good forward staging area for a US presence. As long as the Iraqis were happy with it. Kind of like Germany and Korea were for many years and Kuwait is now. Very strategic location, lots of room to train. Given a better political climate, I could see a long term presence there not being such a bad thing.

  6. OT comment – could you consider changing the color scheme of your blog? I find black on medium-dark blue pretty difficult to read.
    There is a reason for the eight centuries of heraldic wisdom that dictate you never put a metal (argent/white, or/yellow) on a metal, or a color (gules, tenny, sanguine/red, azure/blue, sable/black, vert/green, purpure/purple) on a color.

  7. I find the blue soothing….soothing….at least until I ran into the Doug Feith crap.
    Meanwhile, in today’s NYT, Max Boot utters the dread word. Quagmire. And if Max Boot is no longer on board….

  8. at least until I ran into the Doug Feith crap.
    Actually, the problem may have been with the sunlight on my computer screen, not directly with the blog layout – though even with sunlight blurring the colors somewhat, I could still read black on white with ease.
    Agree with you about Doug Feith. The instant support this absurd story has received even from normally-intelligent right-wingers must prove the existence of a VRWC. Or of vampire bananas sucking out brains. Hard to say.

  10. Is it not the case that Chirac was pushing this approach a few months ago
    You’re correct, Rifekin. If the French (and Russians and Germans) keep their word, they should provide additional cash.
    I agree, ARC, that the governing counsel has not been a stunning (or even marginal) success. If the gov. counsel is the model for the interim authority, then, I’ll be the first (maybe the second) to proclaim this plan a disaster. But it’s far from clear that the gov. counsel will be the model. Let’s wait and see.
    C’mon, Harley and Jes, I’m hardly a member of the VRWC (or even right wing). And this plan isn’t absurd — indeed, as Rifekin noted, this plan was pushed in the past by your putative political allies. IT doesn’t become idiotic b/c Bush embraces it.

  11. Sorry, Von: multiple confusion. I assumed that when Harley referenced Doug Feith he meant this post. All my posts so far on this thread have been completely off topic, including this one.

  12. All my posts so far on this thread have been completely off topic, including this one.
    That’s somethin’ to be proud of! Keep on keepin’ on, Jesurgislac — and nice to see you around.

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