Wednesday, April 06, 2005
It must be killing them, but the NYT had to admit today that Iraqis can handle their own government. Without resorting to violence, the disputing factions actually agreed on the three top positions and said they would wait until the government was functioning to deal with other disagreements. All this took them two months.
Two months? Do you know how insanely short that period of time is? The US didn't even set up a functioning government in that short of a time when we were first forming our Constitution. It took us over two years. Now, of course, I would never suggest that this new Iraqi government is fully functional yet, but this is an important step, let liberal naysayers do all they can to decry it. It demonstrates that even in Arab countries where normally the rifle is the court of first resort, people can choose other ways. I must confess, when Bush painted a glowing picture of the ability of Iraqis and Iranians and Syrians and Arabians to govern themselves I had some serious doubts. Not because of any innate inferiority of the Arab peoples, but simply because they have no history of actually governing themselves, it's always been a despotic system ruling over them. I wondered how people taken from captivity and thrust into such a position would fare. It didn't work well in France in the late 1700s; it didn't work well in Germany after World War 1. But I am happy to see these factions working peaceably together for the future good of their country. The terrorists, along with the dictators of the past (whether Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler, or Joseph Stalin), have posited incorrectly that people don't really want freedom--they want bread and circuses. That's at least what they hope. But the winds of change are blowing, even in the dusty backwaters of the Middle East, and I think the anachronisms are about to swept away. Will this good progress keep up? Well, that remains to be seen.
Two months? Do you know how insanely short that period of time is? The US didn't even set up a functioning government in that short of a time when we were first forming our Constitution. It took us over two years. Now, of course, I would never suggest that this new Iraqi government is fully functional yet, but this is an important step, let liberal naysayers do all they can to decry it. It demonstrates that even in Arab countries where normally the rifle is the court of first resort, people can choose other ways. I must confess, when Bush painted a glowing picture of the ability of Iraqis and Iranians and Syrians and Arabians to govern themselves I had some serious doubts. Not because of any innate inferiority of the Arab peoples, but simply because they have no history of actually governing themselves, it's always been a despotic system ruling over them. I wondered how people taken from captivity and thrust into such a position would fare. It didn't work well in France in the late 1700s; it didn't work well in Germany after World War 1. But I am happy to see these factions working peaceably together for the future good of their country. The terrorists, along with the dictators of the past (whether Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler, or Joseph Stalin), have posited incorrectly that people don't really want freedom--they want bread and circuses. That's at least what they hope. But the winds of change are blowing, even in the dusty backwaters of the Middle East, and I think the anachronisms are about to swept away. Will this good progress keep up? Well, that remains to be seen.
// posted by The Pendragon @ 7:56 PM 
