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02/25/2003 Archived Entry: "Iraqis don't need U.S. supervision"

LET IRAQ'S PEOPLE RULE IRAQ: Says Ahmad Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress.

"However, there must be no gap in the sovereignty over Iraq by Iraqis. We reject notions of foreign military government or United Nations administration for Iraq. Iraqis are fiercely independent and, at the same time, are perfectly capable of governing Iraq. There are many able and talented Iraqis who are not tainted by serving the dictatorship; after all, nearly one-third of all Iraqis live outside Saddam's control -- four million in exile and three million in the liberated area of Iraqi Kurdistan."

I don't disagree with him but I think Mr. Chalabi is a little sanguine about how difficult it will be for Iraq's people modify a state that has dedicated itself to decades of brutal repression and is a powder keg of ethnic tensions. Added to that is that Chalabi himself has little credibility among other Iraqi leaders.

Replies: 3 comments

It's the inexorable logic of Wilsonianism, any ethnic group large enough who demands one eventually gets a state of their own.

Posted by oj @ 02/25/2003 09:31 PM EST

I don't think one of our allies (ref. Turkey), particularly cares for that line of thought though.

Posted by Steve Martinovich @ 02/25/2003 04:45 PM EST

There are more Kurds than there are Iraqis. An independent Kurdistan is inevitable and the sooner we accept that the less bloody it will be.

Posted by oj @ 02/25/2003 03:59 PM EST