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After the Bush
Administration's claims of a 9/11 connection to Iraq and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs)
in Iraq proved to be false, Bush turned to the championing of
democracy in Iraq as the rationale for the Iraq War, although we now
know that he was determined to make war on Iraq regardless,
even if he had to intentionally provoke the Iraqis into a war.
But the Administration's real reason for the war seems to be
control of Middle East oil.
Now, in the wake of the
deaths of over 3700 U.S. soldiers, the Bush Administration has
backed away from the pledge of establishing democracy in Iraq. In October 2005, the
Administration pushed
the Iraqis
to pass a constitution that created an Islamic government.
In the ensuing months, Administration policies have continued to
promote an atmosphere that enshrines
Islamic fundamentalism as the
leading voice in Iraq's new Islamic government. Yet the
American-backed government has failed to take control of the country,
and in fact a religious (sectarian) civil war has erupted, with the violence
growing worse with each passing month and, now, the threat of genocide. One report indicates that
650,000 "excess Iraqi deaths" since the American invasion.
In the face of the violence, over half of Iraq's Christians have fled
the country, while it is estimated that
all Christians
will eventually be killed or leave Iraq.
As the utter failure of the
Bush Administration's invasion of Iraq grows worse with each
passing day, and
Bush continues to deny the reality of the sectarian-driven Civil War
he has created, all Americans should be
outraged that the lives of our soldiers have been sacrificed to
promote Islamic theocracy over democracy. (Read related topic: "Introduction
to Fundamentalism.")
September 15, 2007: "Religious freedom has
sharply deteriorated in Iraq over the past year because of the
insurgency and violence targeting people of specific faiths, despite
the U.S. military buildup intended to improve security, a State
Department report said Friday ....
"Many individuals from various religious groups were targeted
because of their religious identity or their secular leanings," the
report said.
It found that members of all religions in Iraq are "victims
of harassment, intimidation, kidnapping, and killings" and that
"frequent sectarian violence included attacks on places of worship."
Muslims who practice less-strict versions of their faith
suffer because "conservative and extremist Islamic elements exert
tremendous pressure on society to conform to their interpretations of
Islam's precepts," the report said.
At the same time, it said, "non-Muslims (are) especially
vulnerable to pressure and violence, because of their minority status
and, often, because of the lack of a protective tribal structure."
(Associated
Press)
August 16, 2007: The
number of coalition military deaths in the war in Iraq has reached
4,000. The gloomy milestone was reached as a U.S. general said
there has been a rise in insurgents booby-trapping houses.
Meanwhile, a coordinated attack against the
Yazidi minority, which killed 500 civilians, was described by Maj.
Gen. Benjamin Mixon as an attempt to influence U.S. public opinion.
He called the attacks on Kurdish villages of the Yazidi religious
minority "ethnic cleansing." There has been very little security in
the area where the bombs exploded, officials say. Sunni extremists
have been blamed for the attacks. (CNN)
June 18, 2007: Iraq
has emerged as the world's second most unstable country, behind Sudan,
more than four years after President George W. Bush ordered the U.S.
invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, according to a survey released on
Monday. The 2007 Failed States Index, produced by Foreign Policy
magazine and the Fund for Peace, said Iraq suffered a third straight
year of deterioration in 2006 with diminished results across a range
of social, economic, political and military indicators. Iraq ranked
fourth last year. (Yahoo
News)
January 16, 2007: The
Iraqi government is moving to solidify relations with Iran, even as
the United States turns up the rhetorical heat and bolsters its
military forces to confront Tehran's influence in Iraq .... American
officials oppose the presence in Iraq of Iranian officials and members
of the Revolutionary Guard, which is controlled by religious
hard-liners in Iran. Washington and Tehran have been at odds for
decades and are in a standoff over Iran's nuclear ambitions .... In
Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish north, much of the economy is founded on
trade with Iran and the smuggling of contraband into the Islamic
Republic. Since the 1979 founding of Iran's theocracy, Kurdistan has
been a transit point for banned alcohol, movies and satellite dishes. (Newsday)
January 16, 2007: Pointing
to raging sectarian violence that has rocked Baghdad as the main cause
of civilian deaths, the United Nations said in a report that at least
34,452 Iraqis died in 2006. Another 36,685 people were wounded in
attacks around the country. (Middle
East Times)
December 18, 2006: Violence in Iraq is at an
all-time high, confidence in the government is fading, and the economy
is faltering, the Pentagon told Congress in a report released Monday.
The Pentagon says injuries and deaths among U.S. and coalition forces
in Iraq rose 32% during the period from mid-August to mid-October over
the previous three months. Both the average number of attacks each
week and the average number of people killed or wounded in those
attacks were at their highest levels since the United States handed
over power to the Iraqi government in June 2004. The rise of ethnic
and sectarian militias and other armed groups drove the increased
violence, the Pentagon report says. (USA
Today)
December 6, 2006: The
trouble [with the recent Iraq Study Group Report] is that the Iraq
Study Group is ultimately providing false hope for an extended war.
Its assessment is appropriately bleak. For example, "Key Shia and
Kurdish leaders," the commission finds, "have little commitment to
national reconciliation." Now, given that these leaders
comprise the Iraqi government, one might think that would lead
to the conclusion that Iraq is doomed to an intensifying sectarian
conflict, and unless one believes it is in the United States' interest
to pick a side in someone else's civil war, that means it's time to go
home. Instead, the commission, despite its own better judgment in its
report, is gearing up for what Hamilton called "one last chance at
making Iraq work." It's hard to see what's responsible about this.
(Prospect.Org)
December 4, 2006: The U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan gave his hardest-hitting assessment yet
of the present situation in Iraq, saying that life for ordinary Iraqis
is now worse than under Saddam Hussein, as the country entered the
state of violence that is "much worse" than civil war. Annan
believes that the sectarian violence in Iraq should be caleld a civil
war, "given the level of the violence, the level of killing and the
way the forces are ranged against each other". Annan also
insisted that the life for an average Iraqi today is much worse than
it was under Saddam Hussein. "If I was an average Iraqi, I would
make the same comparison," Annan said, speaking to BBC.
(Toronto
Daily News)
November 29, 2006: President George W. Bush
has continued to reject assertions that Iraq is in the midst of a
civil war. But in the wake of his meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki in Amman, Jordan, to discuss the country's continuing
sectarian violence, some human rights experts are worrying about a
different, worse fate for Iraq: genocide.
Juan Mendez, Kofi Annan's special advisor on the prevention
of genocide, told TIME that the targeting of minorities based solely
on religion in Iraq, the extent of the violence there, the lack of
central control, and the fact that Iraq has already experienced
genocide, "constitute warning signs that we take very seriously."
(TIME
Magazine)
November 28, 2006: NBC News and MSNBC broke
away from the pack of mainstream media and decided to use the term
"civil war" to describe current fighting in Iraq.
Over the weekend, the Los Angeles Times became one of the first
newspapers to use the term "civil war" without a qualifier.
"Apparently the utter chaos and carnage of the past week has finally
convinced some to use 'civil war' without apology," Editor & Publisher
reported. (CBS
News)
November 26, 2006: Shiite and Sunni
clerics, among the last vestige of authority in a country rapidly
losing faith in politicians, charged Saturday that Iraq's plight was
the result of U.S. mistakes and pleaded with their faithful to stem
the bloodshed that followed a devastating attack on a mainly Shiite
Baghdad neighborhood.
In interviews Saturday and in recent sermons, clerics articulated one
message that appears to be gaining traction on both sides of Iraq's
civil war: The U.S. presence is making matters worse, and the
Americans should go home. (Los
Angeles Times)
November 25, 2006: Iraq's civil war
worsened Friday as Shiite and Sunni Arabs engaged in retaliatory
attacks after coordinated car bombings that killed more than 200
people in a Shiite neighborhood the day before. A main Shiite
political faction threatened to quit the government, a move that
probably would cause its collapse and plunge the nation deeper into
disarray. (Los
Angeles Times)
November 24, 2006: The death toll from a
brutal string of car bomb attacks in Baghdad's Sadr City has risen to
more than 200 dead and more than 250 wounded, an Iraqi Health Ministry
official said Friday after an updated count from local hospitals.
Thursday's bloodshed represented the single deadliest coordinated
attack in Iraq since the start of the war in March 2003 .... the
incident -- which might have sparked retaliatory mortar fire in a
Sunni section of northern Baghdad later in the day -- portends even
more chaos in a country rife with violence .... It comes a day after a
U.N. bimonthly report about Iraq that underscored the unbridled
sectarian violence harming Iraq. (CNN)
November 23, 2006: At least 101 Iraqis died
in the country's unending sectarian slaughter Wednesday, and the U.N.
reported that 3,709 Iraqi civilians were killed in October, the
highest monthly toll of the war and one that is sure to be eclipsed
when November's dead are counted. (Houston
Chronicle)
October 13, 2006: With the country edging
nearer to civil war -- if not already immersed in it -- [British
General Army Chief Richard] Dannatt said the strategy for implementing
an Iraqi democracy was ill-prepared.
"I think history will show that the planning for what
happened after the initial, successful war-fighting phase was poor,
probably based more on optimism than sound planning," he said.
(CNN)
October 12, 2006: The number of sectarian
killings each month in Baghdad has more than tripled since February,
and the violence has not slowed despite a major offensive in the
capital.
Death squads killed 1,450 people in
September, up from 450 in February, according to U.S. military
statistics. In the first 10 days of October, death squads have killed
about 770 Iraqis.
The increase in death squad killings
reflects the level of religious warfare that is now the largest threat
to security in Iraq. (USA
TODAY)
August 3, 2006: Two senior American
military commanders said today that the wave of sectarian bloodshed in
Iraq has heightened the danger that the country will slide into
all-out civil war.
“I believe that the sectarian violence is probably as bad as
I’ve seen it, in Baghdad in particular, and that if not stopped, it is
possible that Iraq could move towards civil war,” Gen. John Abizaid,
the commander of United States forces in the Middle East, told the
Senate Armed Services Committee.
A similarly sobering assessment was offered by Gen. Peter
Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said he can
envision the present situation “devolving to a civil war.” (New
York Times)
May 3, 2006: "Sadly, the post-invasion
breakdown in law and order married to a de facto theocracy have
spelled the end of theater in Iraq. It's simply too dangerous for the
public to venture out, and playwrights are terrified of whom they
might offend with their work. 'Once we had one Saddam and we knew who
to be afraid of,' a playwright friend told me in autumn 2003. 'Now we
have at least 25 (to fear).'"
(San
Francisco Chronicle)
April 9, 2006: "Steps toward democracy in
the Arab world, a crucial American goal that just months ago was cause
for optimism — with elections held in Iraq, Egypt and the Palestinian
areas — are slowing, blocked by legal maneuvers and official changes
of heart throughout the Middle East.
Analysts and officials say the political rise of Islamists,
the chaos in Iraq, the newfound Shiite power in Iraq with its
implication for growing Iranian influence, and the sense among some
rulers that they can wait out the end of the Bush administration have
put the brakes on democratization." (New
York Times)
April 8, 2006:
"A car bomb killed six people Saturday
near a Shiite shrine south of Baghdad, and the death toll from the
deadliest attack of the year rose to nearly 90. A senior official
warned Iraq was in an ``undeclared civil war'' that can be curbed only
by a strong government and greater powers for security services ....
The attacks on houses of worship
have stoked tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, especially
after the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, an act that
triggered reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics."
(Guardian)
March 31, 2006: "With support for President
Bush already at record lows, some Christian conservative leaders say
that they are reconsidering their support for the administration's
push to democratize the Muslim world.
Religious conservatives spent the past few weeks urging the
White House to stop an Afghan court from executing Abdul Rahman, a
convert to Christianity who is accused of violating Islamic law. After
complaints from American officials, the case was dismissed. But the
controversy left the Christian Right questioning the Bush
administration's assumption that Muslim countries can become
democratic even while adhering to Islamic law and Muslim customs."
(Forward.Com)
March 24, 2006: Iraq is not the only nation
where Bush's policies have produced a fundamentalist Islamic
government. In Afghanistan,
Top Muslim Clerics Insist Christian Convert Must Die.
February 25, 2006:
"American officials have been repeatedly stunned and frequently
thwarted in the past three years by the extraordinary power of Muslim
clerics over Iraqi society. But in the sectarian violence of the past
few days, that power has taken a new and ominous turn, as rival
hard-line Shiite clerical factions have pushed each other toward ever
more militant and anti-American stances, Iraqi and Western officials
say."
(New
York Times)
February 23, 2006:
"At least 47 people, some of them prominent Sunni Arab clerics,
were killed in revenge in Baghdad in the chaotic 24 hours following
the bombing Wednesday morning of one of Shiite Islam’s holiest shrines
...
The attack on the shrine has sparked the
worst sectarian conflict in Iraq since the American invasion, with
Iraqi leaders and clerics calling for restraint and trying to steer
the country away from exploding into full-fledged civil war ...
The bombing, 60 miles north of Baghdad, wounded no one but
left the famous golden dome at the site in ruins. The shrine is
central to one of the most dearly held beliefs of Shiite Islam, and
the bombing, coming after two days of bloody attacks that have left
dozens of Shiite civilians dead, ignited a nationwide outpouring of
rage and panic that seemed to bring Iraq closer than ever to outright
civil war."
(New
York Times)
February 9, 2006:
"We are ignoring the reality of
the war in Iraq. Our military, especially the reserves and National
Guard, are being stretched close to the limit. The cost of the war is
never acknowledged even in the official budget. After almost three
years, we still haven’t restored the Iraq infrastructure to pre-war
conditions, and politically the country seems headed for an Iran-like
theocracy."
(Lebanon
Daily News)
February 5, 2006:
"Hamas taking control of the Palestinian legislature is bad enough,
but does Bush have any qualms about Iraq? All those purple fingers
waving after voting are a heartening visual but they may bring yet
another theocracy, riven by violence and wedded to Iran, which is
itself led by a democratically elected radical jihadist pledged to
annihilate Israel and us with nuclear weapons."
(Seattle
Post Intelligencer)
February 2, 2006:
"With all the discussion of
Hamas governing the Palestinians and the scary new president of Iran,
we are ignoring the pachyderm in the room: the newly born government
of Iraq.
It is much closer to a fundamentalist Islamic theocracy than
anything envisioned by architects of "remaking the Middle East." Its
Shiite-controlled government is much more likely to align itself with
Iran than any other neighbor."
(Waco
Tribune)
January 25, 2006: "I
am writing this from Qatar, a tiny peninsula jutting into the Persian
Gulf and a good vantage point for observing the turbulent events in
the Middle East. And every observer I have spoken to here agrees on
one thing - the big winner of George W Bush's war on Iraq is none
other than America's arch-enemy, Iran.
It has emerged as the regional superpower. Iran's power used to be
balanced by that of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, a fact highlighted by the
bloody eight-year war they fought in the 1980s - in which the US gave
military aid, including chemical weapons, to Iraq in the hope that it
would crush the fundamentalist mullahs of Iran, but which ended
inconclusively with a truce of mutual exhaustion.
Now Bush has waged his war to overthrow America's erstwhile ally and "democratise"
the shattered country with an election, whose results, announced last
week, disempower Saddam's old power base among the minority Sunni
Muslims and install a coalition of Shi'ite Muslim parties in power -
co-religionists and political allies of the Iranian mullahs.
Not only has the one country in the Middle East capable of
counterbalancing Iran's power been removed from the geo-political
equation, it has been turned into an Iranian ally. The irony is
breathtaking.
A war launched to start a domino process of pro-Western
democratisation throughout the Middle East is having the opposite
effect - the emergence of an anti-American regional superpower whose
revolutionary influence is likely to spread right across the Gulf
region over the next decade.
What was a secular dictatorship is being turned into a radical Shi'ite
theocracy."
(The
South African Star)
January 22, 2006: "Under
a deal to win Sunni Arab support for the constitution, parliament must
consider amendments in its first four months. If legislators approve
the changes, they will be sent to voters in a new referendum.
The main issues of contention, as the fight looms are:
The influence of religion on daily life. One clause prohibits
any law that ‘‘contradicts the established provisions of Islam,’’
raising concerns about whether Iraq will become a Muslim theocracy
like neighboring Iran.
The constitution divides the country along ethnic and
religious lines into three largely self-governing regions. Some see
this as the best way to protect the interests of each group, but
others worry it is a formula for civil war."
(Pueblo
Chieftain)
January 19, 2006:
"As the votes line up now, it appears that the Shiites committed to a
theocracy will be in a position of control eventually. There are
those, again the optimists, who believe that the ruling Shiites will
seek to move toward the center and form a broad based government and
include the Sunnis in a meaningful way.
As I studied the results of the Iraqi election, two other
elections kept coming to mind. The first is the German elections
during the 1930s when Hitler was voted into power. Let's not forget
that unlike Lenin and Mao, Hitler did not seize power in Germany by
force. The German people elected him.
The second, and even more troubling example is the series of
elections in Iran since the Shah was deposed. In the very first
election, after Khomeini's return to Iran, Khomeini's party won a huge
victory. In subsequent elections, the ruling fundamentalists carefully
controlled all of the names on the ballot. But they didn't in that
first election. Khomeini and his followers were voted into office in a
ground swell of public support. Many Iranians later came to rue the
day that they were responsible for handing over control of their
country to the fundamentalist thugs who stripped away their freedoms."
(Military.Com)
January 10, 2006:
"For nearly three years, Iraqi women have inched toward greater
freedom. In some cases, it has meant breaking from traditional dress.
In others, there have been leaps that once would have been
unthinkable: driving, taking a job outside the home, or even entering
marriage counseling.
However, these same women face new limitations later this month when
the Iraqi constitution is enacted. Under the charter approved in a
nationwide referendum last October, Islam will predominantly govern
Iraqi law and religious sects will decide issues involving marriage
and inheritance. Currently, those issues are resolved in civil courts."
(NewHouseNews.Com)
January 1, 2006: U.S. Hope of Secular Rule
in Iraq Fading (Billings
Gazette)
December 23, 2005: "Protesters
gathered across the country Friday to denounce parliamentary elections
that demonstrators called rigged in favor of the main religious Shiite
coalition....
As many as 20,000 people demonstrated after noon prayers in
southern Baghdad Friday in a protest organized by Sunni Arab groups
and attended by representatives of secular Shia parties. Many Iraqis
outside the religious Shiite coalition allege that the elections were
unfair to smaller Sunni Arab and secular Shiite groups. 'We refuse the
cheating and forgery in the elections,' read one banner among many
decrying the elections. Sheik Mahmoud al-Sumaidaei of the Association
of Muslim Scholars, a major Sunni clerical group, told followers
during Friday prayers at Baghdad's Umm al-Qura mosque that they were
'living a conspiracy built on lies and forgery.'
'You have to be ready during these hard times
and combat forgeries and lies for the sake of Islam,' he said."
(Houston
Chronicle)
December 20, 2005: "Sunni Arab leaders
angrily rejected early election results today, saying the vote had
been fixed in favor of Iranian-backed religious Shiites, and they
called for an investigation into possible fraud. Secular politicians
also denounced the results and demanded an inquiry.
The growing fury over the dominance of
the religious Shiites could lead to a protracted confrontation over
the election results, which would likely delay the formation of the
new, four-year government. That process is already expected to take
weeks, if not months."
(New
York Times)
December 19, 2005: "Early voting
results announced by Iraqi electoral officials today indicated that
religious groups, particularly the main Shiite coalition, had taken a
commanding lead, with more than half of the ballots having been
counted.
The secular coalition led by Ayad
Allawi, the former prime minister, had won only meager support in
crucial provinces where it had expected to do well, including
Baghdad."
(New
York Times)
December 18, 2005: "The election pitted a
coalition of religious parties from Iraq's newly resurgent Shia
majority against Sunnis and secular Iraqis who want to curb the
influence of Islamist groups. Some Iraqis say the outcome will
determine whether their country becomes a Shia theocracy like its
neighbor Iran, which backed the religious Shia coalition....
'Religion was a key factor in this election, as it was in the January
election,' said Zuheir Jazairy, a political analyst in Baghdad. 'The
new parliament will have the power to shape Iraqis' lives more than
any of the previous governments that served since the U.S. invasion.'....
The main contender for the premiership
is Adel Abdel-Mahdi, a vice president in the current government and a
leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the
largest religious Shia party."
(Newsday)
December 16, 2005: "Mohammed Saeed Mosawi,
one of the first voters Thursday morning at Gomhouriya Middle School
here, said, 'The important thing is to satisfy God.' His vote went to
'the list of religion' — the ruling United Iraqi Alliance, which
consists of 18 conservative religious parties.
Early, anecdotal evidence suggested that Mosawi's side had the
edge....
How well the alliance performs in the
south could largely determine the makeup of the government. The slate
captured 140 of 275 seats in January, and some opponents fear a
similar performance could embolden the bloc's leaders to try to create
an Iran-style theocracy.
'That's what we're afraid of,' said Abdel Hussein, a secular voter in
Hillah. 'We're worried about the future.'"
(Los
Angeles Times)
December 15, 2005: "The interim government
has been a disaster, its policies encouraging the sectarian tensions
that threaten to rip the country apart. The Ministry of Education was
handed to ministers whose first step was to place pictures of Shia
religious martyrs at the entrance. The result: children being asked by
teachers if they are Shia or Sunni, a development unimaginable a year
ago.
The Ministry of Interior, the department responsible for the
police, was placed in the hands of a fundamentalist Shia party that
has its own armed militia. The result: widespread militia infiltration
of the security forces and Sunnis reportedly dragged from their homes
and murdered by men in police uniforms ....
Increasingly, the main cause of tension is
not the presence of US and British soldiers. It is the fear of many
that their country is being turned into a theocracy - one in which
clerics will help dictate the laws, women have their rights curtailed
and those outside the Shia majority will find themselves victimised
and alienated."
(Sydney
Morning Herald)
December 14, 2005: "The election pits
the religious parties of Iraq's newly ascendant Shiite majority
against those who want to curb their power. Sunni Arabs and secular
Iraqis, in particular, say the outcome will determine whether Iraq
becomes a Shiite theocracy like its neighbor Iran, which is watching
intently.
More than 1,000 Sunni clerics issued a
religious decree, or fatwa , urging their followers to
vote, rallying what is expected to be a massive turnout by Sunnis, who
widely obeyed the clerics' instructions to boycott parliamentary
elections in January."
(MSNBC)
December
13, 2005:
Christians Have No Voice in New Iraq Government
(Macomb
Daily MI)
December 12, 2005: "The much-ballyhooed
elections in Iraq later this week are likely to dig the Iraqi hole a
little deeper for the Bush administration. The Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani,
the most revered Shi’ite Muslim cleric in Iraq, has indirectly ordered
fellow Shi’a to cast their ballots for representatives of the Shi’ite
religious parties that now control the interim Iraqi government ....
The Shi’ite religious parties in Iraq, which will most likely
be victorious, are heavily influenced and funded by the oppressive
theocratic government in Iran ....
In short, the now desperate Bush administration’s attempt to
achieve “victory in Iraq” and pledge to take the Iraqi democratic
experiment on the road to other autocratic Arab countries really
amount to letting U.S. soldiers die to make the world safe for
theocracy. In fact, such future theocracies in Iraq and elsewhere
would likely be very unfriendly to the United States and might even
sponsor terrorist attacks against U.S. targets."
(Independent
Institute)
December 11, 2005: "Iraqis will head
to the polls Thursday for a National Assembly election that could
offer a last chance to move a country rife with sectarian division and
violence toward reconciliation and stability ...
Leading the field is the United Iraqi Alliance, the largest
Shi'ite slate, which is expected to win the most seats in part because
Shi'ites make up 60% of the country's populace.
The alliance has promised to give the government an Islamic
identity ..."
(Detroit
Free Press)
December 10, 2005: "A new book asserts
that modern-day neo-conservatism pushed America into the Iraq war and
there are right wing and hard-line elements in the US government who
have found common cause with fundamentalist groups in the Middle East.
The book by journalist Robert Dreyfuss – The Devil’s Game: how the
United
States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam ...
He said Iraq was a 'secular dictatorship
that the US destroyed and what emerged in its place is largely a
Shiite theocracy on one side, and a Sunni movement that because of
civil war conditions is itself pulled very strongly into a Sunni
Islamic formation.'"
(Daily
Times, Pakistan)
November 27, 2005: "Human
rights abuses in Iraq are as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein if
not worse, former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has said.
'A lot of Iraqis are being tortured or
killed in the course of interrogations,' Allawi said. 'We are even
witnessing Sharia courts based on Islamic law that are trying people
and executing them.'"
(CNN)
November 26, 2005:
Shiite Cleric Increases His Power in Iraq
(New
York Times)
November 20, 2005: "... will democracy
somehow spring to life in the vacuum left by America's departure? More
likely is a civil war, won by Shiites, with the help of Iran, and the
potential of a new, oil-rich fundamentalist Islamic theocracy.
..."
(Seattle
Post-Intelligencer)
November 20, 2005: Sectarian
Hatred Pulls Apart Iraq's Mixed Towns
(New
York Times)
November 13, 2005: "Iraq's Shiites,
suppressed since the founding of the Iraqi state, have created a
theocracy in southern Iraq and have no intention of allowing a central
government in Baghdad to roll it back. Iraq's new constitution merely
ratifies this result."
(The
Register-Guard)
November 10, 2005: "...
Iraq is closer to anarchy or theocracy than
democracy ..."
(Voice
of San Diego)
November 10, 2005: Prospects in central Iraq, including Baghdad, are even more
grim."
(Atlanta
Journal Constitution)
November 9, 2005: "In
southern Iraq, the region is already evolving into a Shiite-dominated
theocracy, and it's hard to see how Americans can halt that trend. Our
British allies who patrol that area haven't even tried, because they
understand that they lack the manpower that would be needed to reverse
a course so grounded in Iraqi culture and history.
October 26, 2005: "Although
a sign of progress and a 'significant milestone' for democracy in the
Arab Middle East, as earlier stated by Nina Shea, director of Freedom
House's Center for Religious Freedom, the approved constitution has
yet to calm the fears of Christian and human rights groups.
'We fear the powerful role given to Islam in the constitution – a role
that is likely to negate the positive language on religious freedom
and other individual human rights,' said Shea before the adoption of
the charter.
The language of the new Iraq charter includes the protection of human
and religious rights but at the same time declares Islam as the basic
source of legislation." (Christian
Post)
October 25, 2005: "Freedom marches on in
Iraq, and tolerance expands its reach at home, or so they say. But I
would put it this way: Democracy marches on in Iraq, and the Koran
expands its reach at home.
Same thing? Not at all. But no one is supposed to consider
the difference. So what if Article 2 in the Iraqi constitution states,
'no law that contradicts the established provisions of Islam may be
established'? If people participate in an election for anything --
including Sharia, including Hamas -- it's the Spirit of '76 all over
again, or so our leaders say. Never mind that worried Iraqi
Christians, concerned for religious freedom, say they're likely to ask
Pope Benedict XVI to intervene."
(Town
Hall)
October 21, 2005: "The new Iraq
Constitution, which apparently has gained approval, sets forth two
competing visions of democracy and human rights, according to some
religious-freedom experts.
The current document 'sets forth two competing and
diametrically opposed visions of society -- one based on religious
freedom … and another vision of society based on a hierarchy of group
rights on Islamic law,' said Nina Shea, director of the Center for
Religious Freedom at Freedom House."
(Associated
Baptist Press)
October 18, 2005: "President Bush on Sunday
portrayed Iraqis' vote on a new constitution as a victory for
opponents of terrorism and a sign that the country was moving towards
democracy .... Key concerns: Islam is the state religion and
fundamental source of laws, leading to fears of a theocracy."
(Associated
Press Story)
October 18, 2005: Crossfire War: Bush
Turning Basra Over to Islamic Militants
(NewsBlaze)
October 17, 2005: Voting Identity, Not
Democracy
(Forbes)
October 14, 2005:
" ...
all brands of Islam lack any wall between
church and state. In Islam, church and state join hands in a way
that's hard for Westerners to grasp. It's been that way since
Muhammad, whose rule was spiritual and temporal."
(Seattle
Times)
October 14, 2005:
"
Q.
What's the role of Islam, and will Iraq become a theocracy?
A. According to the proposed
constitution, no law can contradict Islam. Indeed, Islam is a main
source of legislation. At the same time, all laws must be democratic.
Whether that leads to a theocracy remains to be seen. Judges appointed
by the executive and approved by the assembly will decide whether laws
contradict Islam or democracy." (Knight-Ridder)
October 9, 2005: Secular Block Challenges
Islamic Parties
(USA
Today)
September 24, 2005: Christians Concerned
that Iraqi Constitution Lacks Religious Tolerance
(Christian
Post)
September 9, 2005: Iraqi Christians
cautious about new constitution
(Baptist
Press)
September 8, 2005: "The
United States is stuck in a quagmire in Iraq with 150,000 troops
fighting for a country that just drafted a constitution that makes
Islam the state religion, something the president said would not
happen."
(Seattle
Times)
September 5, 2005:
"A leading Roman Catholic cardinal has urged
Britain to help remove a clause from Iraq's draft constitution he says
would deny Christians and other minorities their basic rights as
citizens.
Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, who is Archbishop of Westminster,
warned British Foreign Minister Jack Straw last week the clause could
have 'devastating consequences' for Iraq's Christian minority. His
office gave some details of his letter on Monday ....
One clause in the draft states that 'no law can be passed
that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam', according to the
statement from the cardinal's office.
In recent years, the Vatican has stressed the issue of
religious liberty in Muslim countries and has raised in the United
Nations the question of persecution of Christians and other minorities
in some societies with Islamic majorities."
(San
Diego Union Tribune)
September 3, 2005:
Minority religions in Iraq fear Islamic rule
(Arkansas-Democrat
Gazette)
August 31, 2005: "Grand
Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, Iraq's pre-eminent Shiite cleric, who lives
reclusively in an ally, is nonetheless a thoroughly modern and
multilingual mullah.
....
for two years Sistani has been
playing chess with the United States. The stakes: the destiny of Iraq,
and the ability of the United States to withdraw and leave behind a
stable, benign regime.
....
In 2004, Sistani did compromise
and accept an unelected interim government. But he did not back down
from his demands for elections to pick the writers of Iraq's
constitution and for a constitution that guarantees no law will
contradict Islam.
Now,
the draft Iraqi constitution released last week seems to give the
ayatollah what he demanded. 'First' it says, 'Islam is the official
religion of the state and is a basic source of legislation: No law can
be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam.'
.... [the]
proposed Iraqi court
could be used by the ayatollah's followers to convert Iraq into an
Iranian-style theocracy. Failing that, draft constitutional provisions
allowing for partitioning Iraq into federal regions could permit them
to create an almost-independent Shiite theocracy in oil-rich southern
Iraq, complementing an oil-rich Kurdish region in northern Iraq,
leaving the Sunni Arab middle with little or no control over the
nation's oil revenue."
(Town
Hall)
August 30, 2005: "THE
MOST telling reaction to the draft Iraqi constitution has come not
from Crawford, Texas, but from Tehran. There, the head of Iran's
Guardian Council hailed the document. 'After years of struggle,'
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said, 'an Islamic state has come to power.'"
(Boston
Globe)
August 30, 2005: "Christians
in Iraq are optimistic about the new constitutional text, but hope for
the improvement of certain points in which the principles of Islam
(one of the sources of law) and those of democracy seem to contrast,
particularly in terms of the full respect of religious freedom: Islam,
in fact, does not accept that Muslims convert to other religions ...
'We are in a predominantly Muslim country,'
Msgr Rahho remarks. 'We are not concerned that Islam is the state
religion, but being a basic source of legislation contradicts the
principles of democracy and freedom, and, above all, the other
possible sources are not mentioned.'" (Asia
News)
August 30, 2005:
Iraq's Worrisome Constitution
(Christianity
Today)
August 29, 2005: War supporters
concerned that 'theocracy' will be final word in iraq saga
(Washington
Post)
August 29, 2005:
"As long-time human-rights and
religious-freedom advocates .... Our first concern is the new
constitutional "guarantee" of "the Islamic identity of the majority of
the Iraqi people" in article 2. This was not part of the delicate
balance over the paramount religion-and-state issue struck in Iraq's
interim constitution or Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), but it
fulfills longstanding demands by Iraq's most influential religious
leader, Ayatollah Ali Hussein Al-Sistani.
This is a constitutional mandate of potentially unlimited
scope than can only increase the already massive role of political
Islam in Iraqi life. It will shape the overall context for the
operation of these interlocking provisions: Islam as the "official
religion" (as in the TAL); Islam as "a basic source of legislation"
(not simply "a source," as in the TAL); and the so-called repugnancy
clause, whereby "No law can be passed that contradicts the fixed
principles of Islam."
By increasing the public role of Islam -- and thereby raising
the stakes -- are not the prospects of further divisions among Iraqis
also heightened, both between -- and within -- factions? Do these
provisions increase the risk of official sectarianism, whereby the
majority Shia impose their interpretation of Islam on minority Sunnis?
In recent days, there has also been an alarming upsurge of
intra-communal violence among Shia and among Sunnis, mainly over
essentially religious issues. Again, doesn't raising the stakes also
risk further conflict and instability?" (AINA)
August 29, 2005:
"Iraqi lawmakers finished
drafting their country's new constitution Sunday, ending a rancorous
process that laid bare sectarian divisiveness impeding the country as
it tries to forge a new democracy.
The committee responsible for writing the draft signed it and
presented it to parliament without an endorsement from Iraq's Sunni
Arab minority ...
... without solid support
from Iraq's Sunni Arab minority, leaders of the country's majority
Shiite-Kurdish alliance risk the constitution being rejected by voters
in the October referendum. If that happens, the country would have to
start from scratch, electing another transitional parliament in
December that would begin the constitution drafting process anew.
That would deliver a severe setback to Iraqis and the Bush
administration, which sees the constitution as a democratic milestone
for Iraq that could help wither Iraq's two-year insurgency ...
The draft constitution
reflects Iraq's radical change in power as a result of Hussein's
ouster, from a secular state before the war to a country governed by
Iraq's conservative Shiite majority. The draft cites Islam as a 'basic
source of legislation,' and it declares that 'no law can be passed
that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam.' ...
... there is a concern
among some Iraqis that, despite references to democratic principles
and civil rights, the draft paves the way for an Islamist state."
(Chicago
Tribune)
August 28, 2005:
World Opinion:
Iraqi Constitution May Boost Iran, Islam (Associated
Press)
August 28, 2005:
"The new draft Iraqi constitution protects the
principles of human rights and democracy while also recognizing the
nation's Islamic traditions and heritage, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq,
Zalmay Khalilzad, said." (U.S.
Department of State)
August 28, 2005: "The
determination of American diplomats in Baghdad over the past few days
to force a draft constitution through the Iraqi national assembly at
high speed ... has everything to do with the desperate need of the
White House, as popular support for the war in Iraq ebbs by the day
across the United States, to show that it is making progress. It is
not Iraqi but U.S. political priorities that are paramount.
It is turning out to be a recipe for disaster. The draft
constitution submitted at the last minute Monday night would turn Iraq
into a loose federation while the basis for laws would be strongly
Islamic ....
The problem about the draft constitution is that it does too
little and too much. It does too little in terms of prolonged
negotiations to conciliate the Sunni Arabs. It does too much in terms
of institutionalizing federalism and Islamic law and mores." (Seattle
Post Intelligencer)
August 26, 2005: "Congressional
advocates for Iraqi women pressed President Bush on Wednesday to do
more to ensure that the constitution nearing completion in Baghdad
doesn't erode women's rights by adopting strict Islamic law." (San
Francisco Chronicle)
August 26, 2005: "President
George W. Bush called the drafting of Iraq's constitution an 'amazing
event.' But instead of fostering consensus, the process has actually
increased chances for civil war.
The constitution pits Islamists against secularists, Shia against
Sunnis, Arabs against Kurds, and women against men. The 'new Iraq' is
a far cry from what President Bush had in mind when he promised
freedom to the Iraqi people....
For example, the constitution enshrines
Islam as the official religion of Iraq; establishes Shari'a, or
Islamic law, as 'a primary source of legislation'; and affirms that no
law shall contradict the 'basic beliefs of Islam.' The constitution
also mandates clerics serve on Iraq's Supreme Federal Court and gives
judges the right to ban laws that contradict Islamic tenets.
By envisioning religious courts adjudicating family law, the
constitution also imposes serious infringements on the rights of women
- especially when it comes to marriage, divorce and inheritance."
(Newsday)
August 25, 2005: "Iraq's
draft constitution is dividing Washington hawks, leading some to
openly question President Bush, who has compared the drafters of the
charter to America's Founding Fathers.
Of particular concern is a clause in the document that would
prohibit laws from contradicting the tenets of Islam, and the prospect
that those making such evaluations would be clerics. The provision has
raised sharp criticism from groups such as the Family Research Council
and Freedom House.
The backlash among supporters of the Iraq war here may not
only damage the White House politically, but could call into question
Mr. Bush's strategy to work with Shiite religious parties. Certain of
those parties, such as the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution
in Iraq, maintain close ties to the Iranian regime.
In a series of meetings with senior officials here in the
last week, including with Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, the director of
Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom, Nina Shea, urged
administration members to consider the possibility that Mr. Bush's
supporters could lose faith in the war if Iraq emerges as a Shariah
state." (New
York Sun)
August 25, 2005: "President
Bush can call the draft Iraqi constitution a "landmark," an
"impressive" advance, "another step forward." He can stand outside his
vacation resort and say that "democracy is unfolding," and that the
constitution "is going to be an important change in the broader Middle
East." But the president's words can't change reality ....
How can Bush
justify the deaths of U.S. troops to set up an Islamic state in which
women's rights are subordinated to religious law? ....
President Bush
said this week that the best way to honor the 1,800 dead American
soldiers is to continue the mission. But given the deterioration of
the situation in Iraq, Americans must ask themselves whether it's in
America's best interest to spill the blood of another thousand or two
thousand or three thousand Americans in a misbegotten attempt to
create a democracy where only an Islamic state will grow."
(Fort
Wayne News-Sentinel)
August 24, 2005: "Huzan Mahmoud, the
head of the Organisation for Womens' Freedom in Iraq, has launched a
scathing attack to Iraqi's newly drafted constitution, saying it has
it has nothing to do with the aspirations and desires of the people of
Iraq for real freedom and equality. She says the constitution will
continue to degrade women and institutionalize violence and terror in
the embattled country .... According to the draft constitution, Islam
is the official religion of the state, and it is a main source for
legislation, meaning no law can be passed that contradicts the fixed
principles of Islam's rulings ....
Mahmoud says Islam being the main source of
legislation, would prevent the voice of women from being heard.
"'They will deal with a woman by stoning her to death in public if she
has sex outside marriage while men will have a right to have four
wives at the same time, in the same house. In cases of divorce all the
right and custody of children will be given to men.'" (SabcNews)
August 24, 2005: "Bush said,
'the Middle East will have a clear example of freedom and prosperity
and hope ...'" (Washington
Post)
August 24, 2005: "President
Bush's declaration that Iraqi delegates have defied 'the terrorists
and pessimists by completing work on a democratic constitution' is as
poorly grounded in reality as his continued insistence on linking
Sept. 11 with his decision to invade Iraq. .... the draft constitution
submitted Monday would make Iraq an Islamic state, one in which no law
could contradict the principles of Islam - the cherished goal of
Shiite negotiators. Yet Kurdish leaders in the north insist that
Islamic law provisions would not apply to them, and most Sunnis want
no part of an Iranian-style theocracy." (The
Register-Guard)
August 24, 2005: "Some
secular Iraqi leaders .... said the draft, which was presented to the
National Assembly on Monday, contains language that not only
establishes the primacy of Islam as the country's official religion,
but appears to grant judges wide latitude to strike down legislation
that may contravene the faith. To interpret such legislation, the
constitution calls for the appointment of experts in Shariah, or
Islamic law, to preside on the Supreme Federal Court.
The courts would rely on Shariah, which
under most interpretations grants women substantially fewer rights
than men ....
Many Iraqis say they are already concerned
at the strengthening grip of political Islam in many areas of southern
Iraq, where alcohol is banned in many places, women are forced to
dress conservatively and religious minorities often feel compelled to
mimic those in the majority ....
This is the future of the new Iraqi
government - it will be in the hands of the clerics," said Dr. Raja
Kuzai, a secular Shiite member of the Assembly." (New
York Times)
August 24, 2005: "One Sunni
negotiator, Saleh al-Mutlak, said irreconcilable divisions remained,
and predicted "an uprising on the streets."
He said: "We will campaign to reject the
constitution which has elements in it that will lead to civil war."
Shia and Kurd leaders appear increasingly
fatalistic and indicated that tomorrow the constitution will be pushed
through parliament and its future left for voters to decide. It was
largely drawn up by their delegates and reflects their priorities,
primarily the desire for semi-autonomy in the Kurdish north and Shia
south as well as Shia demands for Iraq to become largely an Islamic
state." (News
Telegraph UK)
August 23, 2005:
Excerpts from the Iraqi draft constitution:
".... Islam is the official state religion and is a basic source of
legislation. No law may be legislated if it contradicts the fixed
beliefs and rulings of Islam." (Knight
Ridder)
August 23, 2005: "President
Bush, seeking to put the positive stamp of the United States on a
draft of a new Iraqi constitution, said today that the writing of the
document was an 'amazing event' and he asserted that it guaranteed
women's rights and the freedom of religion ..." (New
York Times)
August 23, 2005: "On
Iraq, Bush said a democratic constitution 'is going to be an important
change in the broader Middle East.'" (CNN)
August 23, 2005:
"A
draft constitution for Iraq presented to parliament on Monday would
make Islam 'a main source' for legislation and ban laws that
contradict religious teachings .... It was not clear how legislation
would be subjected to the test of conforming to Islamic principles
.... 'Islam is a main source for legislation and it is not permitted
to legislate anything that conflicts with the fixed principles of the
rules of Islam,' said the draft, provided by Shi'ite Islamist
constitution panel member Ali al-Dabbagh ... Kurds had complained that
U.S. diplomats, who have insisted that women and minorities should
enjoy equal rights, had conceded ground to the Islamists in order to
meet a Monday deadline on the draft constitution." (Reuters)
August 23, 2005: Women facing
setbacks under Iraq's new constitution (San
Angelo Standard-Times)
August 23, 2005: Q: If it's [Iraqi
constitution] rooted in Islam, as it seems it will be, is that still
-- is there still the possibility of honoring the rights of women?
THE PRESIDENT: I talked to Condi, and there is not -- as I
understand it, the way the constitution is written is that women have
got rights, inherent rights recognized in the constitution, and that
the constitution talks about not "the religion," but "a religion."
Twenty-five percent of the assembly is going to be women, which is a
-- is embedded in the constitution. (Yahoo
News)
August 23, 2005: "Iraqi
leaders moved to the brink of agreement on a new constitution .... The
most sensitive unresolved issue revolved around the role of Islam,
which will be designated 'a main source of legislation' in the new
constitution. Two critical questions have not yet been resolved:
whether to allow clerics to sit on the Iraqi Supreme Court, and how
much authority clerics will have in resolving family disputes such as
divorce and inheritance. Maintaining secular authority over family
matters is especially important to secular Iraqi women, who fear that
Islamic judges will strip them of the rights they now enjoy under
Iraqi law." (OC
Register)
August 22, 2005: "The
proposed constitution 'guarantees the Islamic identity of the Iraqi
people' but also 'guarantees all religious rights' and states that all
Iraqis 'are free within their ideology and the practice of their
ideological practices.'" (Associated
Press)
August 22, 2005: "The
United States has eased its opposition to an Islamic Iraqi state to
help clinch a deal on a draft constitution before tonight's deadline.
American diplomats backed
religious conservatives who threatened to torpedo talks over the shape
of the new Iraq unless Islam was a primary source of law. Secular and
liberal groups were dismayed at the move, branding it a betrayal of
Washington's promise to advocate equal rights in a free and tolerant
society ...
According to Kurdish and Sunni
negotiators, the US ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, proposed that Islam
be named "a primary source" and supported a wording which would give
clerics authority in civil matters such as divorce, marriage and
inheritance." (The
Guardian)
August 22, 2005: Islamic militants
impose will in some Iraq towns (Yahoo
News)
August 22, 2005: "'The
establishment of a democratic constitution will be a landmark event in
the history of Iraq, in the history of the Middle East,' Bush said in
a speech to U.S. veterans." (Yahoo
News)
August 22, 2005: "A
draft constitution for Iraq to be presented to parliament on Monday
will make Islam "a main source" for legislation and ban laws that
contradict religious teachings, members of the parliamentary drafting
panel said.
One said the text, agreed by the ruling Shi'ite and Kurdish
coalition over Sunni Arab objections, would read: "Islam is a main
source for legislation and it is not permitted to legislate anything
that conflicts with the fixed principles of its rules."
(Reuters,
UK)
August 22, 2005: "Most
significant is the desire of the Shiite majority to establish a
separate state in southern and part of central Iraq which would
certainly be Islamic -- and undemocratic -- in nature and closely
aligned with the rogue state of Iran.
... it appears likely that Iraqi women will
lose many of the rights they had under the secular regime of Mr.
Hussein, where they were doctors, lawyers and teachers. In an Iraq
that under Shiite dominance will resemble Iran, women will begin
disappearing beneath their veils." (Battleboro
Reformer)
August 22, 2005: "Although
al-Sistani and the religious establishment have declared themselves
formally committed to separating clerics from government, they have
always insisted on the embodiment of elements of Islamic law and
religion in the state, and on the recognition of their own status and
authority in these matters.
In
particular, personal status law governing family matters and the
status of women should in their eyes be not just sharia
law, but one under the control of clerics, not parliament or
government ....
The
example of Iran stimulates diverse clerics and their networks to
ambitions for power and wealth. Despite al-Sistani’s disavowal of
clerical rule, many clerics seek the advantage of control of
institutions and resources, like their Iranian counterparts. The
demand for a Shi’a federal entity in the south is
related to the quest for clerical power." (Open
Democracy)
August 22, 2005: "US
concessions to Islamists on the role of religion in Iraqi law marked a
turn in talks on a constitution, negotiators said .... US diplomats,
who have insisted the constitution must enshrine ideals of equal
rights and democracy, declined comment." (Daily
Times)
August 21, 2005: "Critics
also see Iran's influence in the drafts of Iraq's new constitution,
which calls for Islamic Shariah law to be the main source of
legislation and requests that Shiite clerics be granted special
status, paving the way for Iraq to become an Iran-like theocracy.
"They want to have control over Iraq," said Michael Leeden, a
consultant to the National Security Council under former President
Ronald Reagan, and now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise
Institute. "Their favorite way of doing it would be to create an
Islamic republic," said Ledeen, who has urged the overthrow of the
Iranian regime." (San
Francisco Chronicle)
August 21, 2005: "a
compromise between the two sides was reached. It states Islam is the
official religion and 'a source of legislation,' but also says the
government may not enact a law 'that contradicts those fixed
principles of Islam that are the subject of consensus.'" (Media
Monitors Network)
August 20, 2005: "... the
Americans have sided with the Shi'ites," a secular Kurd said. "It's
shocking. It doesn't fit American values. They have spent so much
blood and money here, only to back the creation of an Islamist state
... I can't believe that's what the Americans really want or what the
American people want."
(Reuters)
August 16, 2005: Religious minorities
concerned about prospect of enlarged role for Islam in new
constitution
(Kurdish
Media)
August 5, 2005: Iraqis wouldn't
favor theocracy, U.K. general says
(USA Today)
April 25, 2005: "The United
States will not allow an Iran-style religious government to take hold
in Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said ..."
(Detroit News, AP)
March 7, 2005: "The
Jan. 30 elections in Iraq marked a historic step toward securing a
free and democratic Iraq, but Iraqis went to the polls and elected an
assembly with strong religious ties. With the representatives
being appointed and the future of Iraq being decided, one must
consider the possibility that all our efforts to create a democracy in
Iraq may have been in vain."
(The
News Record)
February 26, 2005: Cheney says he
doesn't see Iraq theocracy
(ABC
News)
February 7, 2005: View emerging of
Shiite-ruled Iraq
(Christian
Science Monitor)
February 4, 2005: "Iraq
Shiite theocracy: no longer 'if,' but 'how much' ... we can expect an
Islamic theocracy in Iraq somewhere within the wide spectrum between
Iran and Turkey"
(UnderReported)
January 28, 2005:
Some experts fear a Shiite theocracy in Iraq following Sunday's
elections in Iraq
(Baptist
Press)
February 8, 2004:
MR. TIM RUSSERT: If the Iraqis
choose, however, an Islamic extremist regime, would you accept that,
and would that be better for the United States than Saddam Hussein?
PRES. BUSH:
They're not going to develop that. And the reason I can say that is
because I am very aware of this basic law they're writing. They're
not going to develop that, because right here in the Oval Office, I
sat down with Mr. Pachachi and Chalabi and al-Hakim, people from
different parts of the country that have made the firm commitment that
they want a constitution eventually written that recognizes minority
rights and freedom of religion. (Meet the
Press, Transcript)
November 11, 2003: "Bush's priority in Iraq
is not a Democracy ... turning a society devastated by war, brutal
repression, economic mismanagement and corruption and deep ethnic,
tribal and religious differences into a beacon of democracy will
require a far larger international effort than Mr. Bush appears to
have in mind."
(Financial Times)
August
15,
2003: "US intelligence
officials warned the National Security Council before the Iraq war
that the American plan to build democracy on the ashes of Saddam
Hussein's regime - as a model for the region - was so audacious that,
as a CIA report put it in March, it could ultimately prove "impossible."
(The Age)
April 21, 2003:
Senators wary of theocracy in Iraq
(Washington
Post)
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