Democracy In Iraq

Steven Vincent's In the Red Zone remains an excellent blog for reading about the situation in Iraq. Vincent, author of Into the Red Zone, is a New Yorker who spent several weeks travelling about Iraq last year, alone and anonymous (under cover as a Yugoslav journalist).

He observes the new, democratically elected Majlis in Basra.

By the way, read back in the blog; Vincent is by no means a cheerleader for the war; a classic 9/11 Democrat (a self-described New York liberal) who is critical of much of the Iraq invasion (read the blog, if not the book), his observations are, and remain, fascinating.

This entry covers the first meeting of the Majlis (Mahjaless, here - arabic transliteration is a complex thing, not that Marty Newton would know...):

In truth, I don't know what to make of the Mahjaless Mahafalla. Yes, many of the 41 members are alarmingly inexperienced with democracy, in the pocket of the religious parties and possibly corrupt--but they are a legislation born from a (more or less) free election, the first in this city's history. "Think of where Germany and Japan were two years after World War II--Iraq today is further along the road to democracy," a Public Administration Adviser from the British Embassy crooned. And despite one's natural tendency to become cynical in dysfunctional Iraq, I think she's right.

In another scene, he's watching Kuwaiti TV - and the Rudy Giuliani movie comes on. Vincent links the Giuliani story to the Iraqi vision of democracy:

Ten minutes into the movie, the real-life footage began: the gaping hole in the north tower; fire erupting from the south; smoke streaming from the largest skyscraper fires in history; people on the upper floors waving white distress flags; the downward plunge of the south tower into its foundations; avalanche-like billows of white debris pouring down Vesey Street and over the spire of St. Paul's Church as the north collapsed...and for a moment, I was no longer in my hotel room, but back in New York, on the roof of our building, once again witnessing the horrible, the unimaginable, the obscene.

Upsetting, yes; but somewhat eerie, too, to watch these scenes replayed in Iraq. For, of course, the reason I was even in this Basran hotel room--the reason America and Britain forces invaded Iraq, drawing thousands of people, including myself, into this country--was the nearly 3,000 people murdered on September 11. Strange, too, were the words I remember the real Mayor Giuliani expressing that day--especially his awful, emotionally wrenching statement that the "loss of life today will be more than any of us can bear"--given Arabic subtitles. Did Iraqis watching this show--say, my friendly hotel staff--identify with the mayor, or with the terrorists who humbled the Great Satan? Did they cheer the law and order sheriff or the Robin Hood of the Middle East?

I can't say for sure, of course, but knowing Iraqis, my money's on Rudy. The people here desperately need--and deserve--law and order, a sense that justice can prevail against malevolent powers stalking their nation. The idea that a single man can galvanize a society to stand up to Ali Baba, be they mobsters or terrorists, and survive--unlike, it seems, the police colonel from Zubair--can only bring hope to these demoralized and suffering people. "We need leaders," a Iraqi journalist said to me over dinner last week. "But where can we find them in such a society?"

Hollywood being Hollywood, Rudy's war on crime (the same war that cleaned our block of the heroin gang that had ruled it for years) was depicted with a montage of cops rousting the homeless and squeegie men and prostitutes, scored by a ominous soundtrack that evoked thoughts of fascist thugs crushing the spirit of democracy. I had to laugh. Here in Iraq, real fascist thugs--and not the imaginings of hysterical lefists--seek to crush the spirit of democracy. Here in Iraq--where serving as a policeman is the most dangerous job in the world--people can only pray for a force that is incorruptible, efficient and effective against Saddamite psychos and bloody-thirsty jihadists. They wouldn't call a man like Giuliani a "fascist," and they certainly would not call police officers "pigs." And that's not just because they're Muslims.

Yours from the land where patriot acts, civil liberties and the war on crime are one and the same.

Vincent needs to be at least a couple-times-a-week read for everyone.

Posted by Mitch at June 14, 2005 05:25 AM | TrackBack