Democracy? Doesn’t look like it. A provisional American-run government, designed to foster reconstruction, humanitarian aid and a fledgling constitution, is a perfectly understandable idea. But a long-term de facto colony is surely asking for trouble – both in terms of actual governance and in terms of American public acceptance. Of course, these plans will change under the pressure of events, but I can’t be the only one concerned that democratic institutions do not seem very high on the Cheney wish-list (and it’s largely Cheney’s construction). The extent of de-Baathification is also critical. Krugman gleefully declares today that only “Saddam Hussein and a few top officials will be replaced.” The Washington Post, with a far better track record than Krugman, reports that
Under a decision finalized last week, Iraqi government officials would be subjected to “de-Baathification,” a reference to Hussein’s ruling Baath Party, under a program that borrows from the “de-Nazification” program established in Germany after World War II. Criteria by which officials would be designated as too tainted to keep their jobs are still being worked on, although they would likely be based more on complicity with the human rights and weapons abuses of the Hussein government than corruption, officials said. A large number of current officials would be retained.
Which is it? We’ll see. But the administration needs to be put on notice by its supporters as well as its opponents. Many of us signed onto this war not merely to protect the West from terrorists with weapons of mass destruction, but as an attempt to grasp the nettle of Arab autocracy. If we make no effort to foster democratic institutions, the rule of law and representative government in Iraq, then we will lose the peace as surely as we will have won the Iraq war. And losing that peace means losing the wider war on terror as well.
The Dish 