Apr 12 2007
The Iraqi Parliament bomb
The sad news of a suicide bomber killing Iraqis who are trying to made their democracy work underlines the extent of the crisis in Baghdad. The US troop surge was unable to make any difference. The elaborate security precautions around rhe Green Zone and the Parliament building on this occasion failed.
Democratic societies should be relatively open societies. They are always vulnerable to those who see the jaw jaw of democracy as weak or feeble. Their strength comes from winning over most of the people most of the time to believe in the system, so that those who want to blow it up or damage it have nowhere to hide and no friends to help. There is still insufficient consent to the legitimate power of elected government in Iraq. The US troops in Baghdad are unable to solve that fundamental problem.
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John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
This may be an unpopular statement and I don’t really support it myself … but is a full democracy really what is needed (or viable) in Iraq at the moment?
Wouldn’t a British model of democracy be better suited to the region than the American model that has been largely adopted?
If the majority group attacked the minority group and squeezed them between themselves and the Kurds wouldn’t that help?
The borders of Iraq make no allowance for the ethnic and religious differences. Why not rearrange them again?
Your summary is exactly right, para-military/terror groups can only function if they enjoy the support of at least a substantial minority of the population. The fact that people support some of these militia groups indicate a lack of confidence in and support for the democratic institution that is in place. When the infiltrated police are carrying out massacres and are totally untrusted, it is hardly surprising thet there is a reaction. As it was with the catholics and the RUC in Ulster in the sixties and seventies, so it is now with the police and some Sunni groups. And sadly so it will continue, until confidence is restored on the institutions. Simply putting more troops on the ground, won’t be a long term fix as we found out in Ulster. The current political and legal structure is clearly flawed, and this needs to be addressed.