HOW HE SEES IT Situation in Iraq is far from hopeless
By JAY AMBROSE
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
The situation in Iraq is clearly perilous, but not necessarily what some are describing: a calamity demonstrating that the democracy-building task there was an impossibility from the start, even if better managed.
Some who hold to this view of proven futility also argue that the time to get out is now. Let the Islamic theocrats have their way and hope for the best, they say. Don't spill more blood. Don't spend more money.
Theirs is a premature judgment, to say the least. As tricky as the moment may be, it's more than conceivable that the rebellion among Sunnis in Fallujah is all but quelled and that we will squash the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr without grave offense to other Shiites. Accomplishing these and other initiatives will make it easier to deal with the Iraqi insurgents taking hostages.
There is no certainty in all of this, but it could be that the events of recent weeks will eventually be seen as mainly a period of difficulty on the way to success -- a wrenchingly painful period, yes, but not a period foreshadowing ultimate failure. What is needed immediately is forcefulness accompanied by intelligent diplomacy.
United Nations
And over the long haul? Not a few observers say we need more -- more than the scheduled three months before handing sovereignty over to Iraqis; more assistance from the United Nations, Europe and Arab nations; and more U.S. troops to maintain stability until we can eventually bring the soldiers home.
While there is room for debate on all these fronts, there is far less room for debate on what transpires if the United States and allies abandon their Iraqi goals precipitously. You would likely get a tyrannical theocracy that would foster terrorism and threaten U.S. security while making life miserable for thousands upon thousands of Iraqis.
Iraq is not going to become a democracy in the American model, but despite the enmities between Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, and despite a culture that will not soon accommodate all the principles of governance developed over hundreds of years in the West, it can become something far different from what it was or from what many of its neighbors are. It can become a land in which decency and rule of law thwart civil war and allow prosperity and opportunity.
If it does, the Middle East might then be nudged into something far less threatening to the rest of the world, and America will be safer.