Iraqis’ patience is running out, believing that the U.S. is giving them hollow promises

BAGHDAD,  May 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As the U.S. is planning post-Saddam era in Iraq and reiterates that “all Iraqis have a voice in the new government and all citizens have their rights protected,” Iraqis, in effect, know nothing about the “momentous” changes in their own towns, let alone Baghdad.

"The Americans tell us nothing. We need more information about what is happening," Mustafah Mohammad, 50, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"I watch Iranian TV and that's where I get my news about the American plans for Iraq. It tells us we must fight the Americans and kill them."

Mohammad was one of dozens of curious onlookers standing outside a barbed-wire fence surrounding a government building in Baqubah, some 50 miles from Baghdad, occupied by the Americans a week ago.

As he spoke, a U.S. military civil affairs team began handing out pamphlets depicting the country's volatile mix of religious and ethnic in of Iraq.

Children clamored for a copy, pressing into the wire and shouting "Mister! Mister!" to the young female soldier on the other side of the fence, who said nothing.

"What does this mean?" asked 15-year-old Mohammed Sulayman, a student who has not been to school since U.S. forces moved into Baghdad on April 9 and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.

"People want a lot of things, money, work, petrol (gas) for their cars and they also want someone to guide them, to tell them what to do," said  Ghanem Yussef.

"People here are very poor, they have nothing and what are the Americans doing?"

Another man read the "Proclamation to the People of Iraq" from Lieutenant General David McKiernan, a three-paragraph statement which began circulating in Baghdad 10 days earlier.

It affirms the coalition's commitment to "restoring security, stability and rapidly repairing Iraq's damaged infrastructure," and implores people to "immediately return to work."

Abbas Sultan, a teacher, read the statement to others in the crowd, then folded it and put it in his pocket, as a sign of disappointment.

"But it is not enough. I have no information about the Americans' plans for Iraq. Newspapers are too expensive. We need an Iraqi television station," said Sultan.

On Saturday, May 3, hundreds of people invaded Baghdad's Palestine Hotel, where journalists live under U.S. military protection, to demand jobs and aid from the United States.

Democracy Could Take Years

Add to that, some political experts said that rebuilding democracy in the war-scarred country could take years as U.S. authorities say they have begun laying the groundwork for elections in Iraq and pledge a total commitment to this process, “no matter how long it takes.”

The first contract to begin the process was awarded in early April by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to Research Triangle Institute (RTI) "to provide local governance support."

The value of the contract could go as high as $167 million.

The process for setting up national elections is likely to take at least two years, says Richard Soudriette, president of the International Foundation for Election Systems, one of the subcontractors of the RTI contract.

"It would be premature to look at anything before two years," Soudriette said.

"That's the experience we've had with other countries in a similar situation. The biggest challenge is trying to help them put in place a system that the people will have confidence in."

"There are a couple of models for this, most notably the Afghan government," said Commander Chris Isleib, a Pentagon spokesman at the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) for Iraq.

"The U.S. government has expressed a total commitment to this process, no matter how long it takes. Our only stipulation is that it be a democratic government in some form."

Some experts say the process may be far more complex than imagined in Iraq because of a lack of a democratic tradition and the deep ethnic rivalries among Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds and others.

In Iraq, "the effort to bring about a democracy can accentuate those divisions," said Daniel Brumberg, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"The question is how to deal with this when democracy can make it worse instead of better ... people in the United States assume that democracy is a panacea, but it's not necessarily that at all."

Brumberg said that if one ethnic group were seen as gaining political control, the others "are not going to support the democratic process and have every reason to undermine it."

"It's along process and it's hard to know whether the United States can do it ... and not be viewed as colonialists," he added.