Staff Editorial
The Crimson White (U. Alabama)
(U-WIRE) TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — With the invasion of Iraq seemingly inevitable, an important question is what happens when the fight is over? America cannot afford to continue its less-than-stellar track record of state building when the time comes to rebuild Iraq.
The Bush administration has suggested significant resources will have to be invested in rebuilding Iraq and fostering democracy, but similar promises were made after removing the Taliban from Afghanistan. However, the United States has done little more than leave troops as police officers, send a few hundred thousand dollars of foreign aid and cross its fingers.
This kind of failure to follow through on pre-conflict promises must stop.
The United States has to formulate a real plan for encouraging democracy and keeping the peace once it is established.
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In the past, post-war state building efforts have not been effective, with recent examples including Kosovo, Bosnia and Haiti. The end results of these experiments have left much to be desired, and the circumstances in Iraq mean the failure of any government that comes after Saddam Hussein would be particularly nasty.
Iraqi citizens are mostly Shi’ite Muslims, as is the majority of the population of Iran — another country that doesn’t exactly love the United States. The possibility of a Saddam-free Iraq and Iran allied with one another is not a happy one, so the failure of any replacement government could be dire.
The American push to rebuild Iraq after the removal of Saddam must be less disingenuous than similar efforts elsewhere in the past. A sincere, effective effort to rebuild infrastructure and help the Iraqi people find order will also improve America’s battered image in many parts of the international community.
An honest rebuilding effort will demonstrate to the world community that the United States truly doesn’t have a problem with the Iraqi people and that this war is truly about liberating Iraq.
If America is going to remove Saddam, the commitment to rebuilding Iraq in the war’s aftermath must be sincere and well planned.
