The Roots of Iraq's rebellion
A very interesting analysis of the problems in Iraq can be found on
Daniel Pipe's website:
bq. The current insurrection in Iraq was discernable a year ago, as I already noted in April 2003: "Thousands of Iraqi Shiites chanted "‘No to America, No to Saddam, Yes to Islam" a few days ago, during pilgrimage rites at the holy city of Karbala. Increasing numbers of Iraqis appear to agree with these sentiments. They have ominous implications for the coalition forces."
bq. The recent wave of violence makes those implications fully apparent.
The key problem:
bq. ...as a predominantly Muslim people, Iraqis share in the powerful Muslim reluctance to being ruled by non-Muslims. This reluctance results from the very nature of Islam, the most public and political of religions.
And his solution:
bq. I therefore counsel the occupying forces quickly to leave Iraqi cities and then, when feasible, to leave Iraq as a whole. They should seek out what I have been calling for since a year ago: a democratically-minded Iraqi strongman, someone who will work with the coalition forces, provide decent government, and move eventually toward a more open political system.
Interesting take on the situation. The issue of Muslim's being ruled by non-Muslims is being addressed by the June 30th handover and I think this was the best way to do it. If we leave them alone and let the strongest ruler win, we open ourselves up for an Iranian or Syrian backed Islamofascist to set up camp. There are lots of people over there who want democracy to fail and lots of people who dearly want it to succeed. Democracy needs to succeed for the whole 9th-century cycle of violence and hatred to be broken.
Posted by DaveH at April 13, 2004 3:34 PM