qotd

[low_delta]

"I believe the government that governs best is the government that governs least. And by these standards, we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq."

Stephen Colbert

Comments

[mummm.livejournal.com]

I would think that, in order to get anything to work over there, you must get all the factions in on the governing. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure that will never, ever happen. There are just so many of the historic hatreds to deal with, that the task is probably impossible.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think it is.

[the-99th-aisle.livejournal.com]

I hope that Stephen Colbert's speech at the White House Correspondents' Dinner will go down in history as a notable demonstration against injustice in the United States.

As far as the impossibility of setting up a multi-faction government in Iraq, I don't know about that. Shi'ites and Sunnis don't get along very well, but the only reason they're at each others' throats in Iraq right now is because the lack of strong leadership means that either side could come out on top and run the whole country. The Kurds are probably always going to marginalized. I think it would be fantastic if the Kurds ended up with their own little country to call their own, but unforunately, nobody likes to give up land. Just ask the Palestinians.

I think the only way the Iraq situation is going to work is if a balance is found between two extremes: 1) letting them figure out their own way to run their country, and 2) Getting the entire international community in on the situation. As is, I'll bet the Iraqi people feel like the U.S. is trying to bully them into setting up a Western-style government, their will be damned. Democracy by the point of the sword, as it were. Either we leave them to their own devices (which would probably result in a bloody Civil War, which wouldn't be much different than how things are now), or the international community--led by the U.N. and any other international bodies that could lend a hand--should come in and play mediator to the individual factions' squabbles, working things out diplomatically until a reasonable consensus is reached. Stranger things have happened, and I'll bet the Iraqis will have settled their disputes within the next ten or fifteen years.