Iraq is hardly being returned to Saddam Hussein. He will be tried, and I should think, executed in due course. But the country IS now being returned to the cesspool of Middle East politics. The Bush administration, and more largely, the United States whose interests it represents, cannot afford to govern Iraq indefinitely. Nor are they capable, as the White House has begun to realize, of imposing a democratic order on Iraqi society, as an earlier America imposed democracy on Germany and Japan after World War II. Iraq was not defeated in war; only its hideous tyrant removed, and a very cursory effort made at de-Ba’athification. The Iraqi people must finally find their own way to grace.
Nevertheless, if any of them believed President Bush’s fond promise to bring democracy, through Iraq, to the entire Middle East, they have already been betrayed. (I doubt, however, that many believed the rhetoric.) This is because the transition to “democracy” is now being brokered not by Paul Bremer and the U.S., but by Lakhdar Brahimi, an Algerian diplomat, and the United Nations.
I hope we aren’t turning over any real power to the UN. I hadn’t gotten the impression that we were. Warren does have a tendency to go over the top on things. I completely disagree that we cannot bring democracy to Iraq. We didn’t bring democracy to Japan in a year either. People are too impatient nowadays (including, unfortunately, the Bush admin). The UN is good at ‘brokering’. What it isn’t good at is enforcing. As long as we don’t turn Iraq over to the UN peacekeepers and leave, there’s still hope. (Hat tip to mal for the link.
