Good or Evil?

Iraqis have voted on their new constitution. Is that good or bad? It depends who tells the story.

Or

Here in this small West African country, there are many ways one can
listen to the international news. Africa is a ripe place for propaganda, so stations like VOA (voice of America), the BBC world service and RFI (Radio France Internationale) all have 24-hour dedicated FM frequencies.

Yesterday, voting was underway in Iraq in a referendum for a new constitution. Since I know that The US and France have completely diverging views on this subject, I decided to conduct an experiment: I first listened to VOA’s eleven o’clock bulletin, and then to RFI’s midnight one. I must say, I had some interesting findings.

You’d think the two radio stations are talking about two completely different topics. To VOA, this was a “historic” day not only for Iraq, but for the whole Middle east. Iraqis are voting in droves in defiance to the terrorists and in a beautiful rendition of democracy. The Iraq of the future is being built. It was the most peaceful day in Iraq after the war.

Contrast that to RFI’s take: Iraqis were voting on a “controversial” constitution under “draconian security measures”. The constitution divides the Iraqis into sects and communities. It is “based on Islam”, “tramples on women’s rights” and doesn’t protect religious
freedoms. RFI’s analysis was that such a constitution would weaken Iraq, a previously strong a secular state; to support that, they interviewed Richard W. Murphy (The Hafez Assad Biographer). Murphy said that the role of the constitution was to weaken a strong Arab state that had posed a threat to America’s interests in the region, namely the security of Israel. The war was initially launched because of the strong lobbying of the friends of Israel in the Pentagon.

So which of these perspectives is more sensible?
The American viewpoint is the one it has always aggressively promoted, but the French/European one is still the one that is largely believed among the Arab intellectuals and elites (of course, there’s also the Islamist perspective which sees the whole thing in shades of Crusaders and Martyrs).

What does this blogger think?
Well, while the French perspective has its inroads in my heart and mind, it is our own weak social cohesion that is to blame. I support a prosperous Iraq that is an American ally. The key word is prosperous. Once a country is prosperous, and, with a bit of luck, democratic, it can one day grow to become like Turkey: a rational and democratic Muslim country that is an American ally, but one that can at some point tell America “no”.