Posted By:
Howard Kaloogian
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I found this essay by Amir Taheri interesting.  He does a good job of defining what is at stake in post-war Iraq and he deftly casts aside the side-arguments by some with agendas of blocking progress for the Iraqi people.

Here’s an excerpt:

A COUNTRY, NOT A CAUSE

By AMIR TAHERI


What is the real issue in Iraq today? It is to create a new government whose legitimacy is based on free elections. Opponents of the democratic option, however, constantly try to shift the focus to other issues.

For example, they say the Arabs are humiliated because non-Arab armies changed an Arab regime. Well, the reason that that happened is simple: Saddam created a regime that could not be overthrown by the Iraqi people alone, and there were no Arab armies to come to the rescue. So the Americans led a coalition that liberated the people of Iraq from their oppressor.

Does that amount to a political version of the original sin? Should the Iraqis be forced to live under another despotic regime simply to cure the Arabs of their supposed humiliation?

The U.S.-led Coalition was able to enter Iraq because Iraq had been denied normal, not to say democratic, politics for half a century. The only way to get the Coalition out of Iraq is to allow that country to have normal democratic politics. Car bombs, throat-cutting, hostage-taking and hiding in shrines will not drive the Coalition out. Only a freely elected government can ask it to withdraw in accordance with the latest resolution by the U.N. Security Council.

By opposing democratization, Sadr, Saddam and Zarqawi are, in fact, prolonging the country’s occupation. Free elections in Iraq would not only spell the end of occupation but could also end all three careers.

The Iraqi people should do all they can to prevent their country from becoming a “cause” for pan-Arabists and Islamists. Iraqis want a country in which they could live as normal human beings. They don’t want a cause for which they die while other Arabs nurse their humiliation.

CLICK HERE to read the entire column.