The Iraqi
Government Is the Iraqis' Business
There's a lot of talk these days about splitting Iraq into three
parts. It's coming from almost every direction.
Democratic Sen. Joe Biden, with an eye on his run on the White
House, wrote in the New York Times that the U.S. government should
create a new Iraq along the lines of Bosnia: the idea "is to
maintain a united Iraq by decentralizing it, giving each
ethno-religious group — Kurd, Sunni Arab, and Shi'ite Arab — room to
run its own affairs, while leaving the central government in charge
of common interests."
The White House, meanwhile, contends that only a "unity government"
of Kurd, Shi'ite, and Sunni Arabs can pull Iraq together and defeat
the terrorists.
Where in this debate are the desires of the Iraqis themselves?
During the debate on the formation of the new government, Shia
politicians complained that President Bush himself called Baghdad to
say that Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari (whose slate won the most
votes in the elections we organized) was unacceptable to Washington.
As many Iraqis ask: Where is the democracy? Where is the freedom?
Even Kurdish politicians, who have benefited most from Washington's
largess, are sick of meddling from the U.S. government.
"It would be more appropriate if they would
leave us alone," well-respected Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman told
the Los Angeles Times after Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice
paid surprise visits to Baghdad.
"Let us solve our problems by
ourselves," he added.
A sheik affiliated with the Shi'ite Sadr movement agreed: "Enough is
enough," he told the Times. "Rice's trip to Iraq at this critical
time is just another desperate move by the Americans to try to
impose themselves on our new government. But they have lost their
influence."
It's time that politicians in both parties in Washington showed a
little bit of respect for the 25 million people of Iraq and allowed
them to decide on their own how to run their country. If the Kurds
in Kurdistan (northern Iraq) want to secede and create their own
country, that's their business – but they should have to face the
difficult political, economic, and security situation that would
develop if they took that drastic step.
Democracy and freedom for Iraq means letting the Iraqi people decide
how to plan their future, whether or not it happens to coincide with
"American interests." Maybe if Washington politicians gave Iraqis a
little more space to make their own future together, they wouldn't
shoot and bomb American soldiers so much.
Iraqis know that "American interests" are different from their own.
When politicians in the U.S. pretend otherwise, it only makes the
situation worse.
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