Why would any reasonable person expect Iraq to become a fledging democracy in just a few years?

Question

It took the better part of a decade to get our Constitution and form of government together.

Iraq was where the US was in the beginning. They are the first freely elected government in an Arab country. We were the first democracy.

Just because a country has a freely elected government does not mean it does not take time to work. Freedom is something new to Iraqis. They do not understand it and are learning.

Answer 1

As usual I'll have to annoy the short-attention span liberals who apparently think these things should happen within a week or two like a TV miniseries. I would like to point out several things that are impeding progress in Iraq. Things which the US can do little to improve, and certainly cannot affect without further endangering American soldiers unnecessarily. 1) The borders are not secured, allowing still more Islamist militants to enter the country from other lands (yes, I'm still talking about Iraq), 2) The Iraqis are not a single cohesive people, they are splintered along religious faction lines as well as ancient tribal and familial lines, concepts that are quite foreign to most Americans. Put simply, it's as if the Baptists and the Methodists are at war over how best to get people wet, and the Smiths hate the Joneses because a thousand years ago one of the Smiths killed one of the Joneses. 3) The Iraqis, unlike the colonists of the early USA, did not just man up and arm themselves and fight back against their oppressive dictator and put him down in the interests of creating a representative republic for themselves. This option was forced on them almost overnight, and they simply aren't prepared for it. They are still haggling over what faction gets to control what, where and how much, rather than forcing people to put aside their differences and tolerate each other. Of course, this such a difficult thing to do that we haven't even accomplished it here in America. So, in my opinion, it is unreasonable to assume that Iraq will be a representative democratic republic any time soon unless the people are well trained, prepared, and willing to fight for it for themselves.

Answer 2

Woth all due respect, I would take issue with the suggestion that the US was "the first democracy" or that Iraq finds itself in the same position as our forefathers did in the founding of our nation, I would suggest, instead, that it is legitimate to question the assumption that Iraq could suddenly stand up and become a comparably functioning "democratic government" given their circumstances.

The arbitrary (or perhaps intentional) national borders imposed on the populous after the fall of the Ottoman empire, by design I suspect, bound together disparate groups (tribes) of people who had historically been at odds with one another. Their nation was not defined based upon their own choice (as America was.) To expect these diverse groups to suddenly find a sense of 'national purpose', under the circumstances, always strikes me as somewhat naive. I would only hope that those who 'lead' us will somehow come to grips with this reality and begin to dictate 'national policy' with a more decerning viewpoint...Blessings

Answer 3

You are right my friend and raise a great point.

Reasonable people or person won't...only a politician would because it is a great ruse.....to hide the real reason.

Further, countries don't change their age-old and deep rooted hangups and bad habits overnight especially if they are imposed by others.

You give example of US. I will give example of India. India got her freedom from British in 1947 and we are still growing. Our freedom was what we fought for...however after the freedom we have lot of internal issues such as in-fighting, religious divides, communal problems, regional issues, bribery, red tape, etc.

Irag did not want to change, if they did, they would have found a way to change. Yet here we are ...removing Sadam and wanting them to change. It is unbelievably optimistic and to further complicate the issues, we want to stay there until they change to democracy such a herculean task and no unmeasurable in so many different ways.

All the reports indicate that local government is not willing to play along and that is why it is dangerous for us to stay there. But who is listening, I wonder.

Answer 4

Actually, it took the better part of 80 years before we had most of the problems worked out, and even then we had a civil war.

But your other statements are incorrect. Iran has had a democratic country since the 1970s at least, and Israel has been a democracy since the 1950s.

And world-wide, the process of democracy goes back thousands of years. America was nowhere close to the first.

Answer 5

The U.S. was NEVER in the place where Iraq is now.

The middle East is made up of TRIBES, CLANS and RELIGIOUS sects. The rivalries have caused war amongst them for 1400 years....they will never be a democracy.

No Sunni is going to listen to a Shi'ia, no Shi'ia is going to take orders from a Sunni... No B'aht is going to led anyone lead them democratically who is not another B'aht.

And, didn't you hear who boycotted the "free and open elections" and didn't vote at all?

You, and Mr. Bush, need to brush up on the history of that area.

Answer 6

Oh, wait just a minute. You guys have been arguing that Iraq's democracy is just fine and that it's their national security we're trying to get under control. Now you're changing that story and saying their democracy hasn't been established yet????

Here's why I object to this war: BECAUSE NO TWO CONS CAN GIVE THE SAME ANSWER ABOUT WHAT THE CURRENT STATUS IS.

Oh... and, you guys have also said that Afghanistan is a democracy now, thanks to the U.S.

Would you PLEASE all get your story together?

Answer 7

I wish I knew. It took much longer in Germany after 12 years of Nazi rule. Iraq had 36 years of Baathist rule.

Answer 8

Why would any reasonable person expect any nation to become a democracy because some nutjob president invades them and tries to force them to?

Answer 9

The question remains is our version of democracy feasible in the Middle East?

Answer 10

They will never become a democracy. They may play democracy, it will never be real.