THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VIII, Issue # 220, November 17, 2006
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
BUILD IRAQI DEMOCRACY, FROM THE GROUND UP
By Dr. Michael Rubin
ESTABLISHING A STABLE & ENDURING CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ -- WHAT IS NEEDED: A LONGTERM
DEMOCRATIZATION STRATEGY -- A CHANGE IN FOREIGN AID POLICY -- TERMINATION OF U.S. SUBSIDIES TO THE CORRUPT
IRAQI CENTRAL GOVERNMENT -- PROMOTION OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT BY REDIRECTING U.S. FINANCIAL AID THROUGH
THE U.S. MILITARY TO IRAQ'S MUNICIPALITIES -- FOCUS UPON ASSISTING LOCAL GOVERNMENTS RUN BY DEMOCRATICALLY
ELECTED & ACCOUNTABLE CITY & TOWN COUNCILS
FULL STORY:
The democratically elected government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has proved a grave disappointment. Security
has worsened since Maliki has been in power. Ignoring the pleas of U.S. officials, he has been unwilling to crack down
on the militias and death squads that fuel sectarian violence. And the mass kidnapping from a Ministry of Higher
Education building in Baghdad on Tuesday, November 14, by gunmen in police uniforms shows the consequences.
Last month, Maliki's government refused to cooperate with U.S. troops searching for a kidnapped comrade. A week later,
Maliki ordered U.S. forces to lift a blockade of Sadr City, where the missing soldier was believed to be held.
Corruption remains corrosive. Maliki's administration has hemorrhaged hundreds of millions of dollars. Oil revenues and
foreign aid disappear. Maliki and his political allies treat government ministries as mechanisms for patronage. They
dispense jobs to political loyalists, not able technocrats. Officials in the Shiite-dominated Health Ministry, for example,
have replaced experienced doctors with uneducated militiamen.
But does this mean that the U.S. ambition to bring democracy to Iraq was a mistake? As a supporter of the war, and later
an advisor to the U.S. occupation authority, I don't think so. Despite our disappointment with Maliki, the strategic
rationale for promoting democracy in the Middle East — and in Iraq in particular — remains sound. But it needs to be a
longterm strategy, as demonstrated by our success in Korea, where more than 35,000 American servicemen sacrificed
their lives. Half a century later, the juxtaposition of totalitarian, destitute, and nuclear North Korea with thriving and
peaceful South Korea shows the value of a longterm strategy to build democracy.
With chaos growing, impatience in Washington should not come as a surprise. In March, Congress charged a bipartisan
commission chaired by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (Democrat - Indiana)
to look at Iraq with "fresh eyes," but it's already clear that its final recommendations will not make a priority of preserving
democracy. Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr., (Democrat - Delaware), the incoming Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, has said he has no confidence in Maliki and has called for Iraq's division. Others seek to scrap the
Iraqi Constitution or impose rule by a strongman. Rumors circulate in Baghdad that the CIA plans a coup.
But to give up on democracy would affirm our adversaries' conspiracy theories, betray the Iraqi people, and undercut U.S.
diplomacy for decades. Rather, Washington should leave the elected government in place, but stop funding it. If Maliki
wants to treat government ministries as fiefdoms, let him do it without our money. American taxpayers are under no
obligation to subsidize an ineffective government that is hostile to U.S. interests.
Some who advocate shock therapy to reform the Maliki government, such as Senator Carl Levin (Democrat - Michigan),
argue that the way to force it to take responsibility is through a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops. But only the best armed
groups would benefit. Ending subsidies to the central government, though, would promote better government, more
efficient tax collection, and greater transparency over oil revenues (without, most likely, actually bringing down the Maliki
government). Accountability, not elections, is the bedrock of democracy.
I'm not suggesting that aid to Iraq should be cut off entirely. Rather, it should be redirected away from the central
government through the U.S. military to Iraq's municipalities, especially those that are run by democratically elected city
and town councils. Democracy is best built from the bottom up.
Shortly after Saddam Hussein's ouster, I spent a few days with the 173rd Airborne Brigade around Kirkuk, an ethnic and
sectarian flashpoint. The U.S. troops offered aid, but the councils determined how it would be spent. For example, Kurds
might be a plurality, but they could not dictate. In order to win consensus, they had to compromise with Turkomen and
Arabs. Technocrats and those willing to compromise rose as Iraqis pushed the populists aside.
Can this local emphasis work, given the ongoing sectarian violence? Yes. Many Iraqis support ethnic militias because they
provide services and security the central government is unable to supply. The greatest impediments to reconstruction now
are corruption and lack of security. But every day, U.S. servicemen go on patrol across Iraq. They visit every city, town,
and village. They know what is possible and can keep tabs on the money they are handing out. While billions spent by
Green Zone diplomats have evaporated into the ether, U.S. troops can provide accountability.
Injecting money directly to local projects works. Indeed, it is how Muqtada Sadr and the militias have won hearts, if not
minds, and at a far lower cost. Rather than ignore our enemies, we should copy their model of success. The stakes for Iraq
and U.S. national security are simply too high to throw in the towel.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Middle East & the Problem of Iraq
Page Two
Page One
The Problem of Rogue States:
Iraq as a Case History
National Strategy for Victory in Iraq
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
----------------------------------------
CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY & OTHER POLITICAL REGIMES
Modern Constitutional Democracy:
Fundamental Character & Essential Ingredients
Constitutionalism: The First Essential Ingredient
of Modern Constitutional Democracy
Dictatorship: The Opposite of Constitutionalism
Representative Democracy: The Second Essential Ingredient
of Modern Constitutional Democracy
Direct Democracy & Representative Democracy
Political Culture & Modern Constitutional Democracy
Modern Constitutional Democracy:
Summary & Conclusion
Dr. Michael Rubin, a Ph.D. in History (Yale University) and a specialist in Middle Eastern politics, Islamic culture and Islamist
ideology, is Editor of the Middle East Quarterly and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public
Policy Research. Dr Rubin is author of Into the Shadows: Radical Vigilantes in Khatami's Iran (Washington Institute
for Near East Policy, 2001) and is co-author, with Dr. Patrick Clawson, of Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos (Palgrave
Macmillan, 2005). Dr. Rubin served as political advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad (2003-2004); staff
advisor on Iran and Iraq in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense (2002-2004); visiting lecturer in the Departments of
History and International Relations at Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2001-2002); visiting lecturer at the Universities of
Sulaymani, Salahuddin, and Duhok in Iraqi Kurdistan (2000-2001); Soref Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East
Policy (1999-2000); and visiting lecturer in the Department of History at Yale University (1999-2000). He has been a fellow at
the Council of Foreign Relations, the Leonard Davis Institute at Hebrew University, and the Carnegie Council on Ethics and
International Affairs.
The foregoing article by Dr. Rubin was originally published in the Los Angeles Times, November 16, 2006 and can be
found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum.
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
November 17, 2006
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