Democracy deficit Thursday, 26 August 2010 05:32

An acute shortage of power leaving Baghdad in semi-permanent blackout, the city’s artery that is the mighty Tigris, choked into a stream, mountains of garbage piling all over, the crime graph unrelentingly going up with human trafficking, rapes, killings becoming routine, health services in urgent need of emergency care, educational institutions gasping for breath, and the government, well it has been in the making for months on end. That’s where the US combat troops left a democratic Iraq this week.

Was this the vision the US had when it invaded Iraq in 2003?

The situation in Iraq today, to most Arab observers, looks worse than it was during the regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and gives credence to the widely held view: The US invasion of Iraq was not about democracy but more about toppling Saddam Hussein and having control over the country’s oil.

Note what George W Bush said on June 28, 2005, Fort Bragg: “As Iraqis grow confident that the democratic progress they are making is real and permanent, more will join the political process … These elections are inspiring democratic reformers in places like Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Our strategy to defend ourselves and spread freedom is working. The rise of freedom in this vital region will eliminate the conditions that feed radicalism and ideologies of murder, and make our nation safer”.

But the way the Americans managed Iraq, they have delayed the democratic process in the Middle East back by at least 10 years. Many of those in the Middle East who have vigorously advocated for a democratic change in their countries have second thoughts. With unsettled conditions in Iraq, they have begun doubting and think that maybe it’s better to have a strong dictator than to lose the safety and stability in their countries.

Iraq has become a bad example for democracy in the region.

Six months have passed since the Iraqi national elections but still no government has been formed.

Even when the government is finally formed, it will be weak and unstable since each party in the government will have its own agenda.

They cannot pass laws because they can hardly agree on anything.

From the beginning the decision to invade Iraq was a mistake. No proper transition process was thought of. And once most of the Iraqi army was destroyed and the Baath party was strategically eliminated, there came a yawning power void. This has enabled outside forces like Al Qaeda and others to meddle in Iraqi politics.

The Iraq Index by the Saban Center for Middle East Policy puts the estimated total number of Iraqi civilian casualties from May 2003 until June 2010 at 113,166. It says that as of June 30, 2010, the total number of those killed in multiple fatality bombings was 20,387 while 43,719 people were wounded. The total number of Iraqi military and police officers killed from June 2003 through June 29, 2010 is 9,537.

The Index put US military fatalities from March 19, 2003 (start of major combat operations) through June 29, 2010 at: Fatalities (all kinds): 4,413; fatalities in hostile incidents: 3,488, fatalities in non-hostile incidents: 925

Meanwhile, a total of 2,764,000 people were internally displaced in Iraq as of December 2009.

In a book written by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E Stiglitz and Kennedy School of Government professor Linda J Bilmes, the war in Iraq is said to have cost the US a whopping $3 trillion.

For the millions of Iraqis that suffered and died during the seven years of American occupation, what kind of Iraq is the US leaving?

Leaving Iraq without a strong government will not only add to problems within Iraq but also in the wider Middle East.

In the power void, interest groups inside and outside Iraq will have a field day. And the civil strife will continue with the spectre of Lebanon’s civil war getting stronger every passing day.

The US must admit its responsibility in bringing Iraq to where it is. It is well-known the original mistake was made by former president George W Bush’s administration. However, President Barack Obama’s administration should not worsen it by withdrawing US troops and leaving it to sub-contractors like Blackwater/Xe.

That will be a harder knock to American image in the Middle East and more Al Qaeda groups will flourish in the region.

THE PENINSULA