Part II: Once Victory is Achieved (My second Column in the series)

Once the United States and its coalition eliminate the threat to peace and instability coming from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, it will be up to the Allies to rebuild Iraq in the democratic and capitalistic way of governance.

The first and foremost area of action will be the immediate liberation of the Iraqi people from the chains of repression, dictatorship, and torture which for so long they have been subjected to by Saddam Hussein. Food will be distributed, hospitals will be restocked, and life in the Iraqi republic will drastically improve. The Allies will be HELPING the civilians. Within days you will see pictures of happiness like the ones seen when Afghanistan, under the Taliban, was liberated by US forces.

A key cornerstone of a democracy is the separation of one’s military from one’s civilians, both in relationship to the population and in relationship to the government. This is exactly what the Allies will do. There will be a demilitarization of the Iraqi state and a demilitarization of Iraqi society. The military’s links to the executive branch will be destroyed. Weapons will be eliminated. Iraq’s standing army will be broken apart. Defense will be up to the occupying power for the time being, in this case the United States and its allies.

As a result of this demilitarization, the government will be reorganized so that the military will be subjected to the civilians and not the other way around. Within a framework of a transitional government, a National Civil Guard will be formed in line with that of Afghanistan.

Further, there will be certain short-term objectives that will need to be met, and they will. All weapons of mass destruction will be sought out in the country and destroyed. We will go after the terrorist training bases, the entities in Iraq that harbor them, and bring those terrorists and their collaborators to justice. We will dismantle all state structures which for decades have kept the population under constant repression and fear. The secret police will also be abolished.

In order to bring about democracy, I predict that Iraq will be transformed in the same way Japan was after World War II. For a short period there will be an Alliance military ruler, followed by a transitional government, and subsequently ensued by elections. During the initial military rule, followed by the transitional period, programs and other activities will be spurred to spread the democratic thought of governance and push for the creation of a multiparty state. In the case of Iraq, which has a diverse population and a wide range of opinion, a multiparty political system would best represent its diversity.

It is my belief that the transitional government will be made up of the different major ethnic groups of Iraq and will truly represent the population. This transitional government will serve as the forerunner body that will take care in rebuilding the economy and state, with the funds and guidance of the international community and with the more than plentiful funds their oil reserves will provide. I believe the US will not pay as much as most left-wingers claim it will, as Iraq will have more than plenty of its OWN money to use in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of their Iraqi society.

Finally, the Allies will also need to pursue the murderers of the Iraqi regime and bring them to justice. These include Saddam Hussein himself, and his accomplices. We must bring those who were responsible for the massacre of the Kurds in the late 1980s, and we must bring justice to all those involved willingly in the elaborate state security apparatus responsible for thousands of deaths through executions, torture, and beatings. There is no doubt that they are war criminals who must be arrested and convicted.

Yonif, you're a voice of sanity up there in Conn.

Good going and don't be discouraged. (If you get any threats, just remember the Coast Guard is just down the street and they'd LOVE to adjust some attitudes, I'm sure).

Democracy in Iraq would mean a Sunni-Secular Arab minority with a Shia (allied to Iran) Arab majority and the tribal non Arab Kurds...in a region that never has known democracy or how to build coalitions.

Ignorance is bliss. Enjoy.

Good posts yonni, but if you don't stop spending soooooo much time on GFR, your grades will suffer and you'll get kicked out of school.....(g)

We are going to screw the Kurds...again. To make Turkey happy and it will make the Kurds unhappy. Pick up today's New York Times.

I am all for getting Saddam out but don't kid yourself. This will be a hellhole of an occupation in which American troops either do what Israli troops do every day or stay behind barricades and so nothing as they do in Kosovo.

Yes and the Iraqis will emerge praising Zionisim and opening relations with Israel after the occupation......

I wish your prediction is the real outcome but I doubt it and fear mine is the true one.

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