Paul Bremmer, the man responsible for rebuilding the civil administration in Iraq has a status report on his progress in The New York Times. The new Iraqi Governing Council is now meeting, the first and one of the most important steps towards rebuilding a functioning Iraq.
The news media hasn’t reported much on the successes of the rebuilding operation. It doesn’t sell magazines or increase ratings to report on mundane things like propane distribution and schools opening to students. However, despite the terrorist activity in and around Baghdad, progress is being made. Schools are open, power is being restored, and the government is being rebuilt so that Iraq can become self-determining.
Moreover, the Iraqi people are wanting these changes. The theocrats represent a small but vocal minority in Iraq. Most people want democratic rule in Iraq. They also want to see an end to the terrorist activity – it is not just US and UK soldiers being killed, but Iraqi civilians. There is every reason to believe that these attacks are not being organized by Iraqis but by outside terrorist groups.
Sooner or later the terrorist leaders will be brought to justice and the more mundane aspects of rebuilding Iraq will continue as they have for months now. There have been some stumbles along the way, and some problems yet to be overcome, but the committment of the coalition to rebuild Iraq is not in doubt. We will not abandon the Iraqi people, but we will ensure that they have the ability to be self-sustaining. Once that is done, the future is up to them, and they will have to choose what leadership they want for themselves. However, at least they will have had the choice.
I have a frontline source with a soldier (not a Democrat) currently stationed in Baghdad. I heard from him just this weekend and he reports complete and utter madness there…none of the progress being reported from your air-conditioned St. Peter armchair. It’s probably true that most Iraqis want democracy over theocracy, but the nature of Machiavellian governance in the region make democracy an extremely difficult concept to see come to pass without ongoing American micromanagement. Such a scenario would ensure that the Iraqi people, the majority of whom are merely tolerating US presence only in the hopes that they’ll clean up the mess they made, will grow more hateful of American imperialism with each passing week. Your script hasn’t played out according to plan yet, so why should we believe you have it right now?