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AFTER THE WAR
The Battle to Rebuild
A roundup of the past two weeks' good news from Iraq.
BY ARTHUR CHRENKOFF
Monday, August 1, 2005 12:01 a.m.
A foreign reporter recently asked Monsignor Rabban al Qas, Chaldean bishop of Amadiyah and Arbil, whether there is any good news coming out of Iraq. "Twenty-three Iraqis are killed every day in Iraq," the interviewer observed. "Nearly two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, there is no security as yet. Is there still hope in Iraq?" To which the monsignor replied:
What the media portray is true: explosions, killings, attacks. But if you see how much order, discipline, transport, displacements, and work have improved, there is a change for the better compared to one or two years ago. Now people understand there is a government, the structure of a new state. Thousands and thousands of allied and Iraqi soldiers are present. There is a constitution which is being drawn up, laws are being enacted.
The presence of authority is recognised. This was not the case before. And Al-Qaeda integralists and terrorists coming from abroad seek to penetrate Iraq precisely to destroy the beginnings of this social organization.
A war for the future of Iraq is going on, but that war is being fought not only with guns and explosives. Terrorists and insurgents are killing soldiers and civilians and sabotaging infrastructure, and the Iraqi and coalition security forces in turn are hunting down the enemies of the new Iraq. But every step towards self-government, every new job created, every new school opened, is a small victory against those who would want to turn Iraq's clock back three--or 1,300--years. Below are some of these stories that often get lost in the fog and smoke of war.
Society. With the constitution drafting process progressing on schedule, voter registration for the constitutional referendum will start early this month, seeking to enroll those who failed to sign up before the January election as well as those who have turned 18 since then.
Sunni leaders are calling for their people not to repeat the mistake of boycotting the election:
Some 300 leaders of Iraq's alienated Sunni Arab former elite called Thursday [14 July] for participation in the next elections, due in December, after a boycott of January polls left the community largely unrepresented in parliament.
"I'm calling on my brothers . . . to participate in the political process," Adnan al-Dulaimi, spokesman for the General Conference of Sunnis, told participants at a Baghdad meeting.
His comments were echoed by Sheikh Ibrahim al-Nima, a leading Sunni cleric from the main northern city of Mosul.
"We can blame ourselves from staying away at the last elections. It was a big mistake," he said.
"Participating (in the next elections) means we shall exist. If we don't participate there will be no existence for us."
A leader of the hardline Salafist movement, Sheikh Zakaria Mohi Issa al-Timimi, also endorsed taking part.
"We will be very active in our participation in the elections in order to mitigate the damage inflicted on Sunnis today," he said.
There's plenty of foreign support for the constitutional process. Bob Rae, a former premier of Ontario, is one of the Canadians currently in Baghdad under the auspices of the Forum of Federations to share the experience of federalism as Iraqis draft their constitution:
Mr. Rae said that, in this environment of continuous violence, carnage and horror, the determination of the Iraqis to bring democracy to their country is overwhelmingly impressive. "You come away from it all with tremendous admiration for the courage of the people who are sticking at it and moving forward, going forward, and dealing with some very difficult issues.
"They are sophisticated, professional, political people who are picking up the pieces at the end of a dictatorship, and they're doing it in the most difficult of circumstances--this terrible attack on the civilian population."
The European Union will be channeling 20 million ($24 million) through the United Nations in support of the constitutional process. The fund will go to the following areas:
* Provision of European experts to work with the Constitutional Committee of the Iraqi Transitional National Assembly and with other institutions and actors in Iraq
* Media and Public Information...and on and on...
Adam's Apple said:Thank you. Excellent info. piece, as much as I have gotten read. Printed out all 101 pages to find out just what is really happening in Iraq. Can you believe reporters covering Iraq wouldn't think Americans would be interested in reading such stories? It's much more interesting to me to read about how the Iraqis are trying to make a better country and life for themselves, despite the WOT being fought everyday in their country, than it is to read the enormous amounts of coverage being given to the activity of the terrorists. Of course, we know most of the libs in the MSM dont's support the WOT, so any bad news they can scrape up is good news to them.
