Nick Arnett asked
Do you mean to characterize Iraq under Saddam as an empire???
While a great deal of effort has been undertaken over the past 3/4 of
a century to inspire people in Iraq to think of themselves as `Iraqi',
it is clear that many of the people whom Saddam ruled thought of
themselves as Kurds and Shi'ites rather than as ruling Sunnis. Iraq
certainly had the characteristics of a multi-ethnic empire, like that
of the Czars or the French 150 years ago.
One of the things the Bush Administration has done so far is to
prevent the Shi'ites and Kurds from getting justice from their
oppressors. It has forced the major different groups to cooperate.
As far as I can see, this is good.
In 1991, Przeworski pointed out that this sort of injustice enabled
many countries to transition from tyrannies to democracies in the
latter 1980s. For example, I have heard many say that the South
African Truth Commission enabled a peaceful change in government by
preventing justice (or, as others put it, revenge) from prevailing.
--
Robert J. Chassell
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