There’s an interesting piece by Mark Steyn in today’s Chicago Sun-Times, advocating a more localized approach to giving the Iraqis more say over their affairs. Here’s an extract:
“In the Shia province of Dhi Qar, a couple hundred miles southeast of Baghdad, 16 of the biggest 20 cities plus many smaller towns will have elected councils by June. These were the first free elections in Dhi Qar’s history and ”in almost every case, secular independents and representatives of nonreligious parties did better than the Islamists.” That assessment is from the anti-war anti-Bush anti-Blair Euro-lefties at the Guardian, by the way…
“We need more of that. The best bulwark against tyranny is a population that knows the benefits of freedom, as the Iraqi Kurds do. Don’t make the mistake of turning Iraq into a dysfunctional American public school, where the smart guys get held down to the low standards of the misfits and in the end they all get the same social promotion anyway. Let’s get on with giving the Kurdish and Shia areas elected governors and practical sovereignty, province by province.”
If it’s doable (which is a big ‘if’, but with the Kurds, at least, it seems undeniable that it is), there’s a lot to Steyn’s argument. Read the whole thing.