A Year After Liberation

By Barham Salih

THE WASHINGTON POST  Friday, April 9, 2004; Page A19

SULAIMANI, Iraq -- The toppling of the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad a year ago today was a symbol of the victory of freedom over despotism in Iraq and the Middle East. But liberation from tyranny is only the first step. Building a democracy that protects freedom requires a long-term and sustained effort.

A year after liberation, we need to acknowledge both the achievements behind us and the difficulties ahead. The upsurge in violence over the past 10 days underscores the truth that democracy will not be implanted throughout Iraq easily or quickly. But the progress of the past year shows that it can be done.

For those of us who have spent a lifetime battling to free the Iraqi people from the grip of the merciless Baathist tyranny, the past 12 months have been a vindication. That Hussein and many of his cronies are now behind bars and awaiting trial is just.

For the representatives of Iraq's various communities, whom Hussein had played against each other, to have engaged in a peaceful political process to draft an interim constitution was remarkable. The document drawn up by Arabs, Kurds, Turkomens and Assyrians, men and women, Christians and Muslims, is the most liberal in the Islamic Middle East and is an achievement we can all take pride in.

It is worth remembering that historically Iraqi political disputes have generally been settled through violence. Iraq is a failed state in which there have been more coups than free elections. Yet, during the constitutional negotiations, the only weapons that were deployed were ideas, the only exchanges were of words.

While there is a grave and continuing terrorist threat, Iraq is not the violent disaster that naysayers depict. Rather, for Iraqis, most of whom have known nothing but the murder and mayhem of Hussein's rule, the past year has provided a taste of the benefits of peace. More than a million Iraqi refugees have come back to their homeland, despite being told by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees that it was unsafe to do so.

The refugees have returned to a thriving economy characterized by improving services. A year into the new Iraq public health care funding is more than 25 times as much than under Hussein, and child immunization rates have risen 25 percent. The supply of drinking water has doubled. The historical marshlands of southern Iraq, an environment devastated by Hussein, are being restored. Iraqi Kurdistan, protected from Hussein for 12 years by Britain, the United States and Turkey, is experiencing a cultural and economic boom.

For the first time in living memory, Iraqis feel optimistic. According to a recent Oxford Research International poll, 56.5 percent of Iraqis said their lives were much better or somewhat better than a year ago. Only 18.6 percent said they were much or somewhat worse. And 71 percent expect their lives will be much or somewhat better a year from now.

It is in response to this political and economic progress that the terrorists' onslaught is being stepped up. The terrorists know there is no room for them and their sterile ideas in our nascent democracy. These attacks are not, as some imagine, "resistance" to foreign presence. Rather, the terrorists are fighting against the right of Iraqis to choose for themselves. What they are trying to do is drive out all those who would extend a helping hand to Iraqis.

The terrorists will stop at nothing in their quest to drive out the friends of Iraq. The contemptible minority that murdered those brave Americans in Fallujah and desecrated their bodies in no way represents Iraq. By contrast, the Americans who were lost in such terrible circumstances represent all that so many Iraqis admire about the United States.

The thugs of Fallujah are the Iraqi past: men who committed similar atrocities against their fellow Iraqis with utter impunity for decades. Iraqis are most well placed to find the murderers, to develop, collect and exploit the intelligence that will defeat the remnants of the Baathist regime and their al Qaeda allies.

There are more Iraqis under arms today than there are coalition soldiers in Iraq. The contrast between the forced conscription that characterized Baathist rule and the willing engagement of so many Iraqis in the defense of democracy is striking and heartening.

The year ahead will be critical. On June 30 the awful label of "occupation" ends, and Iraq sovereignty is to be restored. After no more than seven months, there should be free and direct elections for a legislature that would be the first directly elected government in the country's history. These will not be easy benchmarks to attain. While we need sustained international support, the onus of responsibility will be on Iraqis themselves to build national institutions. Priorities for Iraqi democrats will be to promote civil society and protect a nascent political process against corruption and organized extremists.

The terrorists, the fundamentalist extremists -- and their sponsors -- know that Iraq is the decisive battle in their war against freedom. They are determined and resourceful. The violence of the past 10 days is a testament to the grave challenge they pose to Iraq's new political process. We have to respond to the present threat but also anticipate that this challenge may escalate as June 30 and then the U.S. presidential election approach. While a robust military response from the coalition is unavoidably the immediate requirement, Iraqis must be empowered to assume a more active role in protecting their country and taking responsibility for their own fate. Iraqi political leaders must be unequivocal in facing their responsibilities. There is no margin for political opportunism in confronting terrorism and extremism in our midst. If the terrorists and extremists are seen to win in any way, seen in any manner to inflict setbacks upon Iraq's burgeoning democracy, then the whole of the Middle East could be set ablaze. If the terrorists lose, then there is hope not just for the stability of the Middle East but for the rest of the world and our common battle against terrorism.

The writer is prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Sulaymaniyah. He will answer questions about this article at 11 a.m. today at www.washingtonpost.com.