A Problem of Transition
From CNN.com
Interview with FA's new "Poster Boy."
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, the U.S. civil administrator overseeing the rebuilding of Iraq, has said he wants to see the nucleus of a new Iraqi government in place this month.
Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International and the author of the new book "The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad" (Norton), discussed the transition Tuesday with CNN Anchor Bill Hemmer.
HEMMER: What's wrong with the [U.S.] plan, if anything, that you see right now?
ZAKARIA: The issue is what [a new] Iraqi authority will do. The danger is that people in Iraq and who serve in this Iraqi authority will think they're the Iraqi government. I don't think that can happen yet. The United States is the power on the ground. Somebody has to govern Iraq. In the short term, that's going to be us.
The Iraqi authority should be concerning itself with the creation of a new Iraqi political system -- power sharing, constitutions, courts -- all of that kind of stuff.
HEMMER: I think that it comes back to, Fareed -- and you can correct me on this if you like -- is that this entire thing hinges on the Iraqi people respecting those who will give them direction in the future, right? Because if you have respect, you'll follow. But if you don't respect, you won't.
ZAKARIA: Well, precisely. I think the key we have to remember is whoever governs Iraq in the foreseeable future -- that is, after we leave -- is going to have to be an Iraqi nationalist. The Iraqi people are going to have to respect him as somebody who is tough, stands up for their interests.
So we may have preferences one way or the other. I think [Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad] Chalabi would probably be, you know, a good democrat in the sense of creating a moderate Iraq.
But the key is: Are Iraqis going to see him as an Iraqi nationalist? And that's something these guys have to figure out. We can't pick and choose which leader the Iraqis will find acceptable.
HEMMER: What are the priorities the new government will face in this country of 23 million?
ZAKARIA: Well, when writing the American Constitution, James Madison said, you've got to do two things. First, you've got to get the government to govern, to control the governed. Then you have to get it to control itself. In other words, first you create order, and then you've got to create the beginnings of limited government.
The order part, I think, won't be that difficult in Iraq because the American Army is very good at this. And, yes, there will be sporadic fire; there will be things like that, but the outcome will be known in advance. That is to say, the Americans will be able to establish order.
The key is going to be that second task: How do you establish limited constitutional government in a region, in a country that has never known it and has had a kind of brutal winner-take-all politics always dominating?
HEMMER: So, you are shedding somewhat of a positive light on this right now?
ZAKARIA: Well, I think this phase is going well. It's probably going better than people realize.
My guess is that the next phase, the creation of, you know, stable constitutional government is going to be tough. I mean, one of the things I talk about in my book is just how difficult it has been in the Middle East to move away from the cycle of repression or Islamic fundamentalism.
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