Democracy in Iraq?

Jerusalem • 11/14/2003

I remain entirely puzzled why American, British and some other Western leaders have been maintaining that a functioning democracy is likely to take hold in Iraq in the coming months or years. It has seemed to me since well before the US-led military operation got underway last March that setting this as a goal is almost certain to invite ultimate failure. No other Arab country has this system of government, with all of them being run by unelected kings, sheiks or dictators, or by men that are elected in closed votes controlled by one party or power (as in Egypt, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority).

I noted in my book HOLY WAR FOR THE PROMISED LAND that the only Arab country which has attempted to hold truly free elections was Algeria in early 1992. The political party that won the first round of the vote was an Islamic extremist group that vowed to dump the new democratic system as soon as they gained power! As it became clear that they were winning the popular vote, army leaders rushed back in and cancelled the second round of the election, which has led to more than a decade of severe bloodshed in the North African country. The Iraqi people have absolutely no experience with Western-style democracy.

They are divided into three religious-based groups which totally distrust the other two. On top of that, representatives of the powerful Sunni minority have ruled the roost for decades, meaning that even if many of them personally hated Saddam, they could not be expected to just hold up their hands and surrender to a Shiite-dominated nationally elected government. In other words, the current bloodshed there will undoubtedly continue, if not become far more intense. Why Iraq should suddenly be expected to emerge out of Saddams evil shadow into the light of participatory democracywhich originally sprang of certain Judeo-Christian religious and cultural values that they do not at all shareis quite beyond me. The suffering Iraqi people certainly wont be seriously aided by any of their Arab neighbors or Iran, whose unelected potentates all fear, if not loath, the system of government being strongly promoted by the United States.

On top of that, Arab pride (which is a well-known trait of the people who claim the same bloodline as the Islamic prophet Muhammad) would predictably be enough by itself to ultimately scuttle any attempt by infidels to impose a foreign style of governance upon Iraq. Western leaders who are actively promoting democracy in Iraq may just be entirely too optimistic, or possibly just a bit nave. Or something else, something a bit darker in nature, may be going on. Whatever the case, the prospects that the situation in Iraq will ultimately weaken the current world superpower are growing every day, as I suspected they would before the first shots were fired last March.

Being an American myself, I am not personally happy if that is indeed the case. However, it might fit in with several biblical prophecies that indicate that the final world superpower will not be centered in America, but in the vicinity of the old Roman Empire headquartered in continental Europe. Of course, only time will tell. In the meantime, thanks for your prayers as I travel in the States and for the "peace of Jerusalem in my absence.