Summer Time & the Dying's Too Easy
We are dying in Iraq in order to give the Iraqis time to forge reconciliation—to integrate the Sunni and Shiah and create an oil policy that will distribute the revenues in a fair and equitable manner. So, while we are buying them time with the blood of our children, the Iraqi parliament is going on vacation.
That we are upset, left and right, pro-war and anti-war, is more than understandable. It is completely appropriate. Press Secretary Tony Snow’s excuse that the Iraqis need a break because summers in Sumer are hot, leaves most Americans cold. Our kids are carrying packs, armor, ammo and dressed in fatigues in the full heat of Baghdad. They are fighting and dying while the Iraqi parliamentarians aestivate back home or voyage to gentler climes. This is completely outrageous and not calculated to win the hearts and minds of the American people. Isn’t it time some other grateful nation tried to win our hearts and minds instead of complaining, dithering and fiddling while we burn in the sun and flames of Iraq?
The government of Iraq complains that we are pressuring them to make decisions and create policies that take more time—much more time. Talk about unmitigated chutzpah!
It is true that we are asking them to make difficult decisions, decisions that are about more than money or even power, decisions that are literally a matter of life and death. Their leisurely pace is explicable but not defensible. Given all the time in the world, they will take all the time in world. Their important decisions will not be any easier tomorrow than today.
The major issue is whether they will ever be a nation. There is at the moment no social contract, no commitment to democracy. In fact, the major violent elements of Iraqi society are not interested in democracy and don’t believe in it.
We have difficulty in accepting that all peoples do not automatically affirm democracy to be the best form of government. Many, in fact, believe in religious governance that does not accept that laws are made by men (sexism intentional in this case) or subject to votes. How, they wonder, do you vote on God’s truth, and how could you accept a decision that you believe violates holy revelation?
On the non-theological front, many do not believe that democracy, and the willing submission to the will of the majority, is a safe way to live. They believe, based on evidence from much of the developing world, that democracy means one election that selects—usually in ways filled with fraud—the “President for Life.” That his life is often brief and violent and he is replaced by another President for Life, does not add to democracy’s luster.
This becomes even more problematic when two ethnic groups are in a civil war and where there is a history of raging brutality. After what the Sunnis did to the Shiahs, under Saddam, it is difficult for the Shiahs to say "Yes" to the re-integration of Sunnis into the government, the civil service or the military. Given the Sunni’s knowledge of their own history, it is nearly impossible for them to believe that as a minority they will not be oppressed at best and slaughtered at worst. How then do responsible Sunnis and Shiahs cut a deal that both sides can trust?
As difficult as this is, time will not make it easier—except if one side clearly prevails in the civil war and the other either surrenders or Iraq breaks apart into ethnic communities and becomes a federation. Taking the summer off will not give time for peace to be made—only for the civil war to become more violent and a winner more clearly discernable.
As for oil, there are many competing interests, all of which are predicated on the final form of Iraq as a nation or federation. In other words, they can’t settle the oil questions until they know what the country will look like. Some plans call for a big pool of revenues that is then divided by region or ethnicity. Needless to say, no group trusts the others to be fair. Meanwhile the Kurds, who for the most part do not consider themselves to be a part of Iraq, want their own oil fields and no part in a larger pool. And, to add to the already daunting complexity, the United States wants control over about 70% of oil income and exclusive contracts for the next 40 years to control exploration. No Iraqi can agree to our demands and still remain alive, no less in office.
So, does it make any difference if the parliament meets or goes on vacation? Yes. We need to help them concentrate their minds and make whatever deals (or wars) they are going to make. The prospect of our leaving might have a clarifying effect on their thinking. Removing a battalion for every day the parliament doesn’t meet might get their attention.
Ultimately the solution will come from them. Our debate should be how to help them understand that time is not their friend. Our dying while they vacate their capital and their responsibilities is not helping them; it is enabling them to avoid their important work.
How you always manage to zero right in and focus our minds on what is so obvious while so many are out there flailing, I do NOT know. You hit the nail on the head continuously. Keep it up!
Marlies Worley