Democracy Takes Root!

According to the LA Times (via Yahoo News):

On the eve of sovereignty, Iraq (news - web sites) is a nation in disarray, riven by bombings, assassinations and sabotage. Yet many people here appear cautiously optimistic that a tough-talking new government run by Iraqis can confront the withering cycle of violence better than their U.S.-led occupiers.

Talk of imposing martial law or restoring the death penalty has been welcomed by many among a war-weary populace.

"We need a tough ruler," said Burwa Tayyeb, who owns a boutique in Baghdad's Mansour district. "I have very high hopes and am looking forward to the 1st of July."

--snip--

"These are our people. We know how to handle this," explained Hamid Rubai, an advisor to the interim leadership.

"He needs to be strict and firm," Fawzia Abdul-Jabbar, a widowed homemaker, said of Allawi. "This is the only way he could bring security to this country. We are tired of living in fear."

--snip--

"If he was a Baathist, this means he was familiar with the ins and outs of Iraqi society," said Tayyeb, the boutique owner, who as an Iraqi Kurd is part of an ethnic group that suffered greatly under Hussein. "This is to his credit."

That's right. Benjamin Franklin once famously remarked that "Those who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security." Of course, people weren't setting off buggy bombs in Philadelphia in the mid-eighteenth century. Mr. Franklin might have had a slightly different perspective if that had been the case. The point is, Iraqis now have neither liberty or security. Security means that they can live--liberty, so far as they can tell, would involve only more chaos. Note that the vast majority of countries bordering Iraq are run by authoritarian governments--it seems to be a pattern that, presently, operates with some success in that area of artificial countries (most were carved out of the old Ottoman Empire by the French and British following the Great War).

To outsiders, it may seem counterintuitive — a nation reeling from more than three decades of despotic rule appears to yearn for authority. But the carnage of the last year seems to have drained many Iraqis of their enthusiasm for noble experiments in government and left them craving a peaceful nation in which their lives may proceed without the pervasive fear of random killings.

Not only politically motivated attacks but common crimes — notably kidnappings and slayings — have skyrocketed since the fall of Hussein's regime.

"One thing I wish from Iyad Allawi is that he reinstates capital punishment," said Tariq Sargon, a Christian record shop owner in Baghdad's Harithiya district. "All these crimes are unaccounted for. [Criminals] have to get what they deserve."

Iraqis suffered greatly under Hussein, but the dictator and his pervasive Baath Party apparatus did provide a sense of security that many look back on with nostalgia. Iraqis dreaded Hussein's security men, but car bombs, roadside ambushes and mortar attacks on the streets of the capital were not a daily occurrence.

Wouldn't it have been great if, say, career diplomats and other, similar civil servants had been consulted and heeded? Instead, the Bush Administration listened to the neo-con fantasies of Wolfowitz, Perle, and their ilk. And now we own a giant mess and are responsible for the suffering of millions. Great. Like I said, maybe pissing all over the State Department isn't the smartest thing for a government to do.