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Liberation, And The Next Day

© lawhawk

April 9, 2003 will be seen as a watershed day in world history. You don't need to take my word for it. All you have to do is watch the crowds that gathered in and around Baghdad that were captured on TV. Even al Jazeera captured the event. Crowds surging and slamming a statue of Saddam Hussein with a sledgehammer. A rope hoisted around the neck, followed by assistance from a US Marine unit that provided the necessary equipment to totally rip the statue down, but not before hoisting both a US flag and then an Iraqi flag over the face of Saddam Hussein.

The crowd stomped all over the face, and dragged the shattered head all through the streets. Elsewhere, in Dearborne, Michigan, crowds of Iraqi-Americans cheered and marched through the streets celebrating the liberation of their country. Supporters of the Bush Administration patted each other on the back and some cautioned that more work lay ahead.

They, of course, referred to continuing gun battles with pockets of resistance in Baghdad and elsewhere. Needless to say, one should recall that snipers continued to work in Paris after it was liberated by the Allies in World War II for quite some time. Looting has occurred, with palaces and government offices taken down to the bare walls. However, many see this as a civilian population getting some measure of revenge on a regime that has tortured, killed, imprisoned, and brutalized a country for more than 25 years.

Now, comes the hard part. The US will continue to mop up the remnants of the Ba'athist regime, on its way to complete military control over Iraq. The scenes of liberation in Baghdad will give way to the pressing needs of the civilian population and the US and the Iraqis must come to some form of accomodation as to how to govern.

To wit, I suggest the following:

The US should institute a Marshall Plan for the 21st Century. It should be open to all nations (even those that obtained funds under the original Plan and seek regime change now) as long as they meet certain requirements.

The requirements should include choosing a Constitution from a basket of six (US, UK, France, Germany, Japan, and Israel) These represent some of the most stable republican forms of government and provide and guarantee basic rights in the people - making the government subservient to the population rather than the other way around.

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