Democracy in Iraq could take decade: Straw
October 13, 2005 - 2:51PM
Iraq is likely to take up to a decade to become a stable democracy, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has predicted.
Speaking on a BBC television program broadcast late last night, Straw added that this estimate was in fact "optimistic", given the experience of other countries after wars or similar momentous changes.
Asked on the Newsnight programme when he expected Iraq to be a stable democracy, Straw said: "I am optimistic about Iraq, I think in five to 10 years we will see it becoming stable.
"I think if you compare nation-building in other situations, after the war in Europe, building up stable nations from the collapse of the Soviet Union, look at Afghanistan, I think that's a reasonable prospect.
"One of the things that makes me optimistic about what has been a very bloody situation over the past 2½ years is the determination of Iraqis to follow the timetable set by the United Nations for the major milestones toward setting up their own government and constitutional apparatus."
Straw was speaking at a televised debate in which he was confronted by the parents of British servicemen killed in Iraq, who demanded the immediate withdrawal of the country's 8000 troops.
Sue Smith, the mother of Private Phillip Hewitt, killed by a roadside bomb in July, said her son had told her his work training Iraqi policemen was a waste of time.
"Democracy is created from within. You don't just walk in and say 'There's your democracy.' It took centuries in England," she told the minister.
"We have opened a can of worms in Iraq. They don't know what to do, so they are stalling."
Straw responded by stressing that the British deployment in Iraq was "open-ended", so long as Iraqi authorities wanted the troops to stay.
"There is no date set [for withdrawal] but we all hope it can be completed in a matter of a very limited number of years," he said.
AFP
Link Here
Iraq is likely to take up to a decade to become a stable democracy, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has predicted.
Speaking on a BBC television program broadcast late last night, Straw added that this estimate was in fact "optimistic", given the experience of other countries after wars or similar momentous changes.
Asked on the Newsnight programme when he expected Iraq to be a stable democracy, Straw said: "I am optimistic about Iraq, I think in five to 10 years we will see it becoming stable.
"I think if you compare nation-building in other situations, after the war in Europe, building up stable nations from the collapse of the Soviet Union, look at Afghanistan, I think that's a reasonable prospect.
"One of the things that makes me optimistic about what has been a very bloody situation over the past 2½ years is the determination of Iraqis to follow the timetable set by the United Nations for the major milestones toward setting up their own government and constitutional apparatus."
Straw was speaking at a televised debate in which he was confronted by the parents of British servicemen killed in Iraq, who demanded the immediate withdrawal of the country's 8000 troops.
Sue Smith, the mother of Private Phillip Hewitt, killed by a roadside bomb in July, said her son had told her his work training Iraqi policemen was a waste of time.
"Democracy is created from within. You don't just walk in and say 'There's your democracy.' It took centuries in England," she told the minister.
"We have opened a can of worms in Iraq. They don't know what to do, so they are stalling."
Straw responded by stressing that the British deployment in Iraq was "open-ended", so long as Iraqi authorities wanted the troops to stay.
"There is no date set [for withdrawal] but we all hope it can be completed in a matter of a very limited number of years," he said.
AFP
Link Here
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 1:16 AM
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