Of Leaders and Men…(Inspired by Riverbend (9/2/03))

The new group of leaders installed by the “coalition of the willing” has often been characterized as a cast of puppets. A bold, cynical statement… While they may not be the leaders that everyone wants today, the question we should be asking is "can they do the job well enough until someone better comes along?" Sure, we all want the perfect government in place today with all the right players making all the right decisions, but how realistic is that? We, a nation of 250 million people, have nearly as many different opinions, perspectives, and motivations. For that reason, we change our President every four years (eight if we're too lazy to vote), our Senators and Representatives every two years, and all because our needs are constantly changing and we're never satisfied with our leaders. That's democracy.

But let’s ask another question…How well were the modern Iraqi people previously represented? Especially the Shia'as in the South? The Kurds in the North? If you don't grant them a place in the "Hall of Power" then they're sacrifice was for naught. And who WOULD represent the modern Iraqi people. In a society that has been politically repressed for decades, who within your population has the political acumen? I appreciate that there is little respect for those Nine Ninnies because they didn't suffer through those years as everyone else did. From a political perspective, however, you have to crawl before you can walk, and walk before you run, and run before becoming a recognized political force in the international community. It took Saddam Hussein decades to obtain the level of "recognition" that he had. And he did it through brute force, the whole way. He was destined to fall, because the world would not have allowed him to achieve much more. Iraq should consider themselves "back to Square One".