"Why Arabs lose wars"

“Anybody who doesn’t appreciate what America has done and President Bush, let them go to hell!” says 77-year-old Iraqi citizen Betty Dawish, voting here in the US in advance of tomorrow's parliamentary election in her home country [via Michelle Malkin via The Political Pit Bull, who calls it the "Greatest Moment in Cable News, 2005].  The indispensable Ian, The Political Teen, has video.

"Their actions mark both a triumph for the Iraqi people and a warning for Arab autocrats," writes Michael Rubin in Opinion Journal re tomorrow's historic Iraqi parliamentary elections, the first to choose a full, four-year government:

Not only has the Iraqi march toward democracy proved naysayers wrong, but Iraqis' growing embrace of democracy demonstrates the wisdom of staying the course. Iraqis are changing political culture. Howard Dean and John Murtha may believe that the U.S. military has lost. Brent Scowcroft may think Arab democracy a pipe dream. They are mistaken.

The greatest impediment to progress in the Arab world is not terrorism or Islamism; both are recent phenomena. Rather, it is lack of accountability. Instead of accepting responsibility for lack of progress, many Arab regimes blame outsiders. In 2002, the U.N.'s Arab Development Report found that the Arab region has the lowest value of all regions of the world for "voice and accountability." In his seminal article "Why Arabs Lose Wars," Col. Norvell De Atkine, an observer of Arab military training, found that "taking responsibility . . . rarely occurs." Arab soldiers seldom admit, let alone learn from, mistakes.

We're reminded of something Mahmood -- the ebulient blogging Bahrainian businessman behind Mahmood's Den -- wrote the other day re the "blame anyone but ourselves" mentality that bedeviled the recent Arab Thought Foundation's Arab and World Media Conference in Dubai:

I've heard one speaker after another emphasize the fact that we are vilified by the western media, globally branded as terrorists, and have an image problem because we are misunderstood in the West, as if the major problem we have is image! It's a good story though, one that helps us continue our denial of the rotten structural core on which we have built our societies: undemocratic and corrupt hereditary rule, archaic educational systems, intolerance, and the refusal to move to a secular society where religion is exclusively used to shape the moral fiber of society rather than use it to interfere in the running of modern countries or be used as a platform of self advancement to the detriment of whole societies.

Dr. Sanity would love it! As for the trouble with Arab military training, Major K -- on the frontline in Baghdad -- offered a military man's insight on the debilitating legacy that left Saddam's enlisted force with no incentives for initiative last fall:

The culture of the old Iraqi Army was one of an aristocratic officer corps and subservient but tightly controlled enlisted force with no real NCO corps in the middle.

Keeping her opinions of America and President Bush veiled, Betty Dawisha's counterpart in Iran -- an Iraqi woman in Tehran -- nevertheless was able to cast her vote yesterday.

A little background from the WSJ's "Framing the Issue: Iraq's Election" [subscribers only]:

Balloting started earlier this week in several countries among the more than 15 million registered voters, with soldiers, detainees and expatriates choosing among almost 7,000 candidates vying for 275 parliamentary seats. At least 25% of seats must be filled by women. The new parliament will select the next prime minister, who will then form a cabinet.

"While Shiites and Kurds are expected to again win big in the election, each group likely will fall short of the roughly 90 seats needed to ensure it can secure key posts for its candidates. That could turn the Sunnis into kingmakers," notes the WSJ:

Post-election wrangling is likely to begin quickly. Sunnis already are talking about amending key parts of the constitution drafted by the current government of Kurds and Shiites, such as the creation of a federal Iraq with a decentralized power structure. Sunnis, viewing themselves as an embattled minority, prefer a strong central government. That means an issue Kurds and Shiites both consider settled could be reopened . . . "The first thing we want to do if we become a part of the government is be in charge of security," said Tariq al-Hashemi, head of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the main party leading the Sunni bloc in elections . . . Sunnis also are expected to press for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops.

'Sounds like democracy -- "the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." There are even rumors of stuffing the ballot box, Iraqi style.

Comments

[goomp]

The more things change the more they stay the same. Human nature never changes. We want to be free, we want to be recognized, we want to tell those with different ideas from ours how to think and how to live. Only a world free from goverment which rules its people can be free of suppression and of murder by those who seek their rewards thru power over others. If we will not fight those who suppress freedom, we will be ruled by them.

[andophiroxia]

GO BETTY!