What it will take

I had a long lunch with one of the Iraqis I work with. He fled in the 90s when ole’ Saddam went on a killing spree. He made a good life for himself as an engineer in the States, but decided to come back here to work as an interpreter. He has been away from his family for over 2 years now. He is an American citizen now, but his home is Iraq and he is here trying to make it a better place. He is a very interesting person to talk to.

Today I asked him what he thought needed to be done to fix this place. His answer: Pull out of the city and let a full scale civil war break out. After a while, when the different factions have sufficiently thinned out each other’s ranks, have to collation come back in and restore order.

It might work, but seems a bit draconian to me. Innocence will always get caught in the middle. Besides, I don’t think they will ever get tired of killing each other.

Some people suggest that we partition the country into a Kurdish region, a Shiite region and a Sunni region. The only problem is that the Arab Shiites will start killing the Persian Shiites. The Al Qaeda Sunnis will keep on whacking the regular Sunnis.

What I think needs to be done is that we need to do is hunker down for the long haul—this thing used to be called “The Long War” until the powers that be said we couldn’t use that phrase. Slowly, things are getting better. Up north in the Kurdish areas and out in Al Anbar in Ramadi are two examples. Most people don’t know that there are shopping malls that are open and doing great business in parts of Iraq.

As their neighborhoods became safer and their living conditions improved, average Iraqis started to take more ownership in their condition. This ownership soon developed into a sense of pride and social responsibility that drove the fanatical elements out of their neighborhoods. It worked up north and it is working out west. Baghdad is much more complicated, but it can be done here as well.

Iraq is in a unique position. Not only do they have vast amounts of oil wealth, but they have the agricultural capacity to be breadbasket of the Middle East. With its rich archeological and religious sites, Iraq can become a travel destination. The city of Krabala, for example, has 100,000 visitors a day—right now. Just imagine how much more appealing the place would be without car bombs going off.

Iraq will get better, but it is a question of time. Time that is measure in years and not election cycles