The road ahead in Iraq
Ralph Peters has a point.
As the June 30 transfer of power looms, we need to be aware of a danger: the danger of power in the hands of those who have no experience in wielding it efficiently.
The new Iraqi government- quite rightly- will call the shots. But calling the shots is serious business, with serious consequences- and the fact is that we just don't know what's going to happen when the shots are called by those who have lived their lives under a dictatorship, and have no experience of democratic government. If the shots they call aren't compatible with the safety of our troops or our overall, strategic interests worldwide, we should not feel obligated to stay out our U.N. mandate.
Americans dying to give Iraqis- however ungrateful- a chance to govern themselves is one thing; Americans dying because of bureaucratic egos or ministerial stubbornness is quite another. The ingratitude of those who see us as occupiers rather than liberators is bad enough; our troops should not die because Iraqis are headstrong or incompetent, as well as ungrateful.
As the June 30 transfer of power looms, we need to be aware of a danger: the danger of power in the hands of those who have no experience in wielding it efficiently.
The new Iraqi government- quite rightly- will call the shots. But calling the shots is serious business, with serious consequences- and the fact is that we just don't know what's going to happen when the shots are called by those who have lived their lives under a dictatorship, and have no experience of democratic government. If the shots they call aren't compatible with the safety of our troops or our overall, strategic interests worldwide, we should not feel obligated to stay out our U.N. mandate.
Americans dying to give Iraqis- however ungrateful- a chance to govern themselves is one thing; Americans dying because of bureaucratic egos or ministerial stubbornness is quite another. The ingratitude of those who see us as occupiers rather than liberators is bad enough; our troops should not die because Iraqis are headstrong or incompetent, as well as ungrateful.
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