| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"ArKLyte_" |
| Date: |
24 May 2004 03:32:04 AM |
| Object: |
Good news, as well as uncertainty, from Iraq |
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595064917,00.html
Good news, as well as uncertainty, from Iraq
The Deseret News
5/23/2004
Jay Evensen
This is the story so many of you have asked us to print. It's the
story of all the good things going on in the Middle East.
According to officials in the State Department, who briefed me and
about 25 other editorial writers here last week, Afghanistan and Iraq
are being transformed away from the glare of cameras. Iraqis are
taking to democracy, although many of them don't understand it.
According to Andrew S. Natsios, the administrator for the U.S. Agency
for International Development, the chairman of one town council didn't
want Americans to leave in the middle of a particularly heated debate
on a local issue awhile back.
If you leave, he said, the people will kill us. "He said that's what
democracy is about. If people don't like you, they kill you."
No, Natsios tried to explain. If they don't like you, they defeat you
in the next election. It's an interesting concept.
On another occasion, Natsios met with 11 students in Iraq who told him
they thought they liked democracy, but they weren't exactly sure what
it was. To them, he said, democracy has always meant the opportunity
to vote for the Baathist Party, which then makes life horrible. The
idea that a loser would be protected with rights is new to most of
them.
But they are catching on. The same is true with their education
system.
The literacy rate is extremely low among girls in Iraq because Saddam
Hussein instructed schoolteachers to beat each student every day,
Natsios said. A lot of parents didn't want their daughters treated
that way, so they kept them home. Now the Americans are telling
teachers that kind of behavior isn't really the most conducive to good
learning. Instead, they should remember four things: Don't make the
kids sit all day long, don't merely read to them from a lesson book,
come prepared with a lesson plan each day, and let the kids discuss
topics so they can learn how to disagree with each other without
getting angry.
It's pretty basic stuff, but maybe it will be enough to lure the girls
back.
In terms of shear money, the work in Iraq is the largest
reconstruction effort in the known history of the world,
administration officials said. So far, the United States has rebuilt
power, water, sanitation and transportation systems. Three key bridges
are up again, allowing commerce and passengers to move again.
Not only have 2,356 schools been renovated, Americans have gotten rid
of Saddam's hateful and grossly inaccurate textbooks and replaced them
with 8.7 million revised math and science books. They've even awarded
people grants to study at American universities, at a value of $20.7
million.
That's just the start. Americans have helped get 19 million people
involved in local politics by establishing and training 78 council
districts, 192 lower-level city councils and 392 grass-roots
neighborhood councils.
In Afghanistan, Americans have done similar work, although that nation
is far behind Iraq when it comes to basic things such as roads.
So why does the bad news about attacks and death dominate the news?
Because it's real, and it's a huge threat to everything the Americans
and the locals have labored to establish. No one I listened to here
last week discounted this.
Extremists are doing all they can to kill members of local councils
and to scare away anyone who would set up a legitimate government.
That must be a sobering thought to John Negroponte, the man who will
become U.S. ambassador to Iraq after the Bush administration hands the
keys of the nation back to the Iraqis on June 30.
Negroponte spoke to us, as well — his first public comments since his
appointment. His is not one of the easier assignments in the State
Department. An ambassadorship to, say, Norway, would have been a much
nicer call from the president.
But Negroponte wants to make one thing clear. He is not going to Iraq
to run a country. He will be an ambassador, the same as hundreds of
U.S. ambassadors worldwide. And he will report to Secretary of State
Colin Powell, not Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
"I will work with the people of Iraq to enable them to take ownership
in their own country," he said. "What Iraqi would want the current
situation to continue?"
If the Americans have done their job right, all those millions of
people engaged in local government will say, "Why are you killing our
people that we elected?" The terrorists won't be able to stand against
that kind of local outrage, Natsios said.
At least, that's the theory.
In Iraq these days, there is indeed good news to report. But there is
also much uncertainty.
--
* See the REAL 'Religion of Peace', Islam, on this site - EXCELLENT
* http://www.mathematik.net/homepage/islam/islam.htm
* Translated: http://tinyurl.com/2ooqh
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| User: "Jan" |
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| Title: Re: Good news, as well as uncertainty, from Iraq |
24 May 2004 02:52:45 PM |
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"ArKLyte_" <ArkLyte_@Now.Net> wrote in message
news:nuc3b0h31g7arst139ke2k37uvda9b0dvs@4ax.com...
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595064917,00.html
Good news, as well as uncertainty, from Iraq
The Deseret News
5/23/2004
Jay Evensen
This is the story so many of you have asked us to print. It's the
story of all the good things going on in the Middle East.
What a warm-hearted story, do you have more?
.
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