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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sultan who wrote (216118)	2/3/2007 5:13:11 PM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi Sultan. I appreciate your reply but I think you answered the question of whether there might be some way of achieving a "free Iraq." My question, however, was: "What is your opinion regarding the viability of a "free and democratic Iraq?" If, somehow, you can see a future for that, how do you see it working and, particularly, how would it work for the minority sects?" I assumed, for purposes of the question, that somehow a "democratic" and unified Iraq could emerge. (I don't see it but that wasn't my point.) What I was asking was how would that work in practice. How could you have a functional, benevolent democracy ruled by a majority of intolerant, brutal and ideologically driven people with centuries of simmering animosity toward various minority sects? One of the statements that you made highlights the problem. You said that Al Queda was 100% Sunni and associated with the Wahabi sect. You said that it's death to be identified as a Shiite in areas under the control of the Sunni/Wahabi. But wasn't it also cause for execution under Sunni led, Saddam Hussein Iraq to be identified as a Wahabi? People willing to kill others for their beliefs, sometimes for good reason, are not good neighbors to those whose beliefs are in the minority and democracy doesn't cure that kind of intolerance. In a free society the majority will always elect leaders who share their bias, hatreds, fears and animosities and that's what I meant when I said the Sunnis were fighting for their freedom and, in some sense, their survival in Iraq. I think it's clear that you cannot, and never will, form any kind of "FREE and unified Iraq" until the culture dramatically changes. Ed