Democratizing Iraq, piece by piece

[Mattforclark]

http://slate.msn.com/id/2100018/

Iraq is mired in a Catch-22. The country is unstable because the government lacks legitimacy. The government lacks legitimacy because it wasn't elected. And you can't have elections because the country is unstable.

There may be a way to reverse this grim spiral of logic, a way to create legitimate governance and in the process peacefully disarm insurgents in Najaf, Falluja, and elsewhere. The key is to realize that elections can be incremental. They can occur in stable parts of the country before occurring in unstable parts. Moreover, successful elections in the stable parts could help peacefully stabilize the other parts, including, ultimately, the Sunni triangle.

...

One big obstacle to implementing this plan is the mindset of the Bush White House. Administration officials would have to accept a reality they never quite acknowledged before the war: that a democratic and truly sovereign Iraq may do things the United States doesn't like. In particular, they would have to let go of a primary, if rarely articulated, motivation for the war: to use Iraq as a platform from which to project American military power.

[robin147]

1. Like a catch22 but maybe worse

The problem is what Bush is trying to do (if he's trying to do what he says he is).

(IMHO) The people in Iraq would like to have self determination.

What dubya is aiming for is a clone of the American idea of Democracy. And I think that idea works more or less OK here. (better than any alternatives I'm aware of.)

Democracy and self determination are not exactly the same thing, and I don't think the Iraqi's like the clone.

To make matters worse, the present puppet government is not winning the hearts or minds of very many people outside of dubya's entourage except those who have been bribed with our tax dollars or subjected to some form of extortion.

[newyawker99]

2. Hi robin147!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[PATRICK]

3. All good advice by the press

is normally dead in the water because reality is not faced. Iraq is not as big an intransigent problem as the Bush team itself that created this mess out of nearly whole cloth and will not, cannot change anymore than Macbeth.

What advice would they give Macbeth at the point of no return in the bloodstream?

The Bush Coup leaders must all go now before sane solutions can have a US contribution with any potential for anything except greed and chaos.