One of Ours

In the last year, worldwide conflict has brought turbulence, trauma, and abuse to millions of lives...the actions of extremists and the reactions of governments have resulted in an atmosphere that conspires against human rights. In the words of Amnesty International, we are living through "the most sustained attack on human rights and international humanitarian law in 50 years." Given this situation, it's a shame that Amnesty, the most venerable of human rights organizations, has decided to stop doing its job. In fact, it could be argued that one of the most serious emerging threats to human rights today is Amnesty's decision to spend a disproportionate share of its limited resources attacking the United States--at the opportunity cost of focusing attention on governments that are slaughtering, enslaving, torturing, and imprisoning millions of people around the world...

Despite war and occupation, Iraq has seen a surge in human rights organizations, political parties and independent newspapers -- entities almost unheard of under Saddam Hussein...

The report by Egypt's Ibn Khaldoun Center for Development Studies welcomed the promise of elections, the freedom of expression and independence of the media but was careful not to credit the Americans for the progress.

...all indications of political rights and human rights mentioned in this report clearly illustrate that the situation in Iraq after occupation is much better than Saddam Hussein's Iraq...

The report, "Civil Society, Democratic Transformation and Minorities in the Arab World," issued in late May...

The 250-page Arabic report reviews civil society, democratic transformation and minorities in 19 Arab countries. The report will be issued in English by July.

...I have been a dedicated history boy for 50 years but these past few months I have begun to wonder if history is any use at all. Britain and the United States have got into a difficult situation in Iraq and the entire Western media are reacting as if an unprecedented disaster is about to overwhelm their armed forces and governments.

...The British and American media retail with evident satisfaction every scrap of information that implicates its service people in wrongdoing, casts doubt on their operational efficiency and undermines any expectation by readers and viewers of a successful outcome to the Iraqi involvement.

The media's message is clear: Iraq is a mess that should never have been allowed to happen. Yet media people are precisely the sort who know perfectly well that wars usually end in a mess.

The Second World War, which has largely formed Western attitudes to war termination, ended neatly for simple reasons: both the Germans and Japanese had had the stuffing knocked out of them. Their cities had been burnt out or bombed flat, millions of their young men had been killed in battle, so had hundreds of thousands of their women and children by strategic bombing. The Japanese were actually starving, while the Germans looked to their Western occupiers both to feed them and to save them from the spectre of Soviet rule. Two highly disciplined and law-abiding populations meekly submitted to defeat.

Because we in the Atlantic region remember 1945 as the year of victory over our deadliest enemies, we usually forget that the Second World War did not end neatly in other parts of the world. In Greece, the guerrilla war against the Germans became a civil war which lasted until 1949 and killed 150,000 people. Peace never really came to Japanese-occupied Asia. In China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Burma, the Second World War became several wars of national liberation, lasting years and killing hundreds of thousands. In Burma, the civil war persists.

The aftermath of the First World War was worse. On Armistice night, Lloyd George, leaving the House of Commons with Winston Churchill, remarked: "The war of the giants is over. The war of the pygmies is about to begin." The pygmies, in civil wars in Germany, Hungary, Poland, the Baltic states, Finland and above all Russia, went on fighting for years, killing or starving to death millions. A full-blown war of conquest by Greece against Turkey ended in a Greek humiliation but also 300,000 deaths.

...the war has not done much harm but has broken the power of the state and encouraged the dispossessed and the irresponsible to grab what they can before order is fully restored.

What monopolises the headlines and prime time television at the moment is news from Iraq on the activity of small, localised minorities struggling to entrench themselves before full peace is imposed and an effective state structure is restored...There is nothing from Iraq's other 8,000 towns and villages, nothing from Kurdistan, where complete peace prevails, very little from Basra, where British forces are on good terms with the residents.

...There is, however, an undeniable fascination in watching Jon Snow, of Channel 4 News, energise himself for his early evening denunciation of Anglo-American activity in Iraq. About 5.30 he comes on to rehearse his sense of outrage. At 7pm we get the full display of apoplexy and hysteria - raised voice, flushed face, physical trembles.

I do not know whether Jon Snow is a history boy who has decided to suppress what he knows in favour of his commitment to drama studies. I do know that he, and the serried ranks of self-appointed strategic commentators who currently dominate the written and visual media's treatment of the Iraq story, have a duty to stop indulging their emotions and start remembering a bit of post-war history. Iraq 2004 is not Greece 1945, not Indochina 1946-54, not Algeria 1953-62 and certainly not "Vietnam".

It is a regrettable but not wholly to be unexpected outcome of a campaign to overthrow a dangerous Third World dictator. If those who show themselves so eager to denounce the American President and the British Prime Minister feel strongly enough on the issue, please will they explain their reasons for wishing that Saddam Hussein should still be in power in Baghdad.

"Rosie the Riveter" was one of the great images of World War II because it told those back on the homefront they had something important to contribute. I wish our government was thinking that way now, because a lot of us would like to step up. No matter how we stood on the War in Iraq, we should want to see that country achieve democracy now.

That's why Jim Hake is one of my heroes. He didn't wait for anyone to tell him what to do when he created....



It's been a huge success. Now I am joining Jeff Jarvis, Glenn Reynolds, the newly self-outed (formerly Armed Liberal) Marc Danziger and others in urging you to support SPIRIT OF AMERICA as it expands.

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It seems that things are going against the will of the terrorists and the totalitarian regimes. The interim government is now a fact they have to accept and deal with and this is better for them than the naive nervous reactions these countries and organizations show in response to the events in the Iraqi field; their moves became tense and stumbling recently, and here I recall the reactions of Hizbollah and Iran after the clashes in Najaf; they were trying to become more Iraqi than we are by their pathetic demonstrations, as if they were given the permission from Iraqis to speak on behalf of them, when, in fact Iraqis were watching what was happening with silent approval despite the fact that the coalition troops were fighting in a city that is considered holy for many Iraqis. Iraqis proved that they’ll support any action that can help them get rid of the remnants of tyranny wherever that might take place.

Today comes another powerful strike to terrorism and the neighboring countries, when the process of forming the transitional government went very smoothly and peacefully. There was a competition between two men; Pachachi who seemed to be favored by the Americans (and by me as well) and Al-Yawer who apparently had the approval and support from most of the GC members and other political powers but Pachachi withdrew in the last moment, the move that proves my point that he was the best man for the job.

...now as one of 'their sons' is on top of the coming government they will certainly stand by his side and help in preventing the sneaking of terrorists through the western borders of Iraq.

Also the man doesn't have any significant affiliation to any religious or ethnic group which will help making him more acceptable for both, Sheiát and Sunni as well as the Kurds and other minorities.

Another point is that this man was the candidate of the Iraqis not the CPA which indicates that Iraqis had more effect in this choice than what the major media suggested.

There appears to be no rejection to the new government in the Iraqi street at all but some Iraqis expect this government to find magical solutions for all the current hardships, which is far from being a realistic expectation of course, but the good aspect is that Iraqis have shown their will to accept the change and to move forwards on the road to accomplish the mission until democracy is established.

Some might say that having a Sheikh as the new president of Iraq is a step backwards that will bring back the rule of the tribal laws but this is not accurate because the tribes do not want to rule the country; they just want to be represented in the government and have their voice heard which is a legitimate right of course, also it's a good idea because the tribes are the only power that can confront the dangerous and radical religious parties.

It's worth mentioning that Yawer, although carries the family name of a Sheikh and he's dressed like a Sheikh, is a modernized man with a high scientific degree. Also, having a cabinet that includes five female ministers should tell us that the tribes couldn't/didn't want to force their law, and at the same time carries a message to the Islamists that the interim government will provide equal opportunities to all segments of the Iraqi people.

I believe the difficulties we are going to face are very serious and could prove to be even harder than the previous ones, as the enemies of the change in the world are so many and so united against us and only by going on with our plans we can force them to abandon their dreams of bringing tyranny back to Iraq.

I believe that this move is a corner stone in the process of building the new model of democracy in the Middle East, IRAQ.