Steven Lee Myers contributed reporting from Paris, and Zaid Thaker from Baghdad.
A hotel under construction on Abu Nawas Street in Baghdad, which is getting a facelift ahead of a regional summit meeting. -- Ayman Oghanna for The New York Times
Posted on 03/23/2011 8:42:33 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
For all of that still unsettled pain, the foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari -- in his new capacity as head of the Arab League -- rushed off to Paris last Friday evening to join Western and Arab allies, where he argued passionately in favor of action against Libya, citing the American no-fly zone in northern Iraq that protected the Kurdish population from Saddam Hussein in the years before the American invasion here, according to a senior official who took part in the Paris deliberations.
And soon, Iraqi leaders, who are facing their own protest movement, plan to use their own troublesome democracy, still bloody and inchoate, as a showcase for Middle East countries. Iraq is taking on a larger diplomatic role in regional affairs as host of the group's annual summit meeting -- while assuming the rotating presidency of the league -- in May.
"If there's a political message, it's that Iraq is back to play a major and positive role in the Arab region," said Labid Abawi, the deputy foreign minister who has led a committee to prepare Baghdad for the summit meeting.
"We take pride in that Iraq has already exceeded all these other Arab countries in establishing a democratic regime," he said. "Now, we can say yes, we are on the right track, and other Arab countries can follow suit in establishing a democratic regime."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
A hotel under construction on Abu Nawas Street in Baghdad, which is getting a facelift ahead of a regional summit meeting. -- Ayman Oghanna for The New York Times
Yeah, that should stabilize everything.
I don't think the US can afford to do this much hand holding for 7 more years in the middle east.
.... it took the Christian-English west 2000 years to create the wonderful words they parrot...democracy, freedom, rights, and liberty...1200 years to get to the Magna Carta and then another 400 years to the Charter of Maryland and then another 400 years to deliver democracy to the Mid East.
~Democracy, as the “west” knows it, has a whole Christian culture infrastructure behind it~
To think that anyone can condense this into a few short years is grossly unreasonable. What will transpire is one man, one vote....bang! Islamic Theocracy with feudalistic mosque monarchs. The end of Democracy!
You would probably have greater success teaching lab rats homosexual activity. If you could do that then you could probably find a cure for aids.
Iraq will remain a democracy because we'll be there for the next 30 years to make it so.
It takes no more than 2 generations...sometimes only one. Look at eastern Europe today...several healthy democratic republics.
They have the same autocratic history as the Middle East.
Which part is too cynical...having more luck teaching male lab rats homosexuality... from what I hear , they want nothing to do with it...at least, not willingly.
and for the Muslims there is a similar bet...
From a expert....
“And thirdly and more importantly,” Choudary said, “the Muslims don’t want democracy and freedom. Democracy and freedom are anathema to Islam and the Shariah.”
So? We are throwing money away...
Which do you think is the safer bet? The rats or the Muslims?
I’m with you on this one & I sure hope so but is it really true tho, that al-a**holes of Al-Qaeda is not running the country??? I’ll wait & see...........
Democratic regime? Oxymoron.
Good...... the positive change is in process.
Next up...... Iraqi membership in the GCC.
You are way off base. The Moslems in Indonesia do quite well and put the lie to what you think you know
What the fundamentalist Muslims are afraid of is the Western-style free-market system. As long as you omit the welfare state, make it necessary to get a job, and give the opportunity to buy stuff, the young will desire the ability to have music, dancing, nice clothes, cars. If such is incompatible with Islam, then they will reject Islam.
There are about as many “Islamic” theocracies are there are mosques. This is a main factor curtailing Islamic theocratic control of Iraq’s government. The same may hold true of other muslim countries. So yes, Iraq is an excellent example for the rest of the muslim world. As the article points out many arabs realize it.
Iraq’s solution.
As there are many tribal and islamic associations a federal republic is the best solution. It has representation of all groups but total control by none. Brennan knew this in ‘05 and defended the new government’s architecture against Iraqi and Western criticism based upon the long-term stability promised by pluralism versus the inevitable instability of a dictatorship or other limited respresentative governments. It’s messy but so far it works.
I dont thinkso.
They still stone Christians dont they?
I don’t think so.
More Christians get stoned in America than in Muslim lands
I have had experience in Africa watching tribes. They have some simple rules there,,,, no one can get ahead of the Chief.... the Chief by day and then the Chief by night.
They do not want their kingdoms upset. Democracy? no,-uh-uh
So, if anyone starts getting ahead, having more money, friends, ideas... the social order reaches out to slow that person down, may even kill him or a loved one.
They have words for it... crabs in a bucket or PHD-pull him down. They can boast democracy, parrot the words of rights freedom and liberty... but, they are only parroting the words. They have no real comprehension of the words, context, derivation, culture, infrastructure that sits behind the meanings of the words.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
