Comments on: Iraq http://downingstreetsays.com/briefings/2004/03/03/294 Every day the Prime Minister's Spokesman meets a small coterie of political journalists known as 'the lobby' for a topical chat, or 'briefing'. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:31:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 By: Schoolboy http://downingstreetsays.com/briefings/2004/03/03/294#comment-263 Schoolboy Thu, 04 Mar 2004 20:51:33 +0000 http://downingstreetsays.com/briefings/2004/03/03/294#comment-263 Representing the Iraqi people and people chosen by the US to represent the Iraqi people are two different things. The INC members and others representing exile organisations are deeply mistrusted by the populace to say the least and yet they are still having a say in constitutional matters. The US has also merely placed ethnic representatives on the CPA, somehow ignoring the fact that there are such elements as left and right wing and other political sectors of an ethnic group of millions. So how "representative" they are is highly open to question. Not to say the US hasn't also made decisions that should not be made until elected officials are in power (such as what should be privitised and what shouldn't). We will not know whether the constitution, legal system and those "representatives" in the CPA are acceptable to the Iraq populace until elections happen. We still have no idea when that will be. If attacks like that in Karbala happen more regularly, we may be waiting longer than Afghanistan has for democracy to see the light of day in Iraq. Representing the Iraqi people and people chosen by the US to represent the Iraqi people are two different things. The INC members and others representing exile organisations are deeply mistrusted by the populace to say the least and yet they are still having a say in constitutional matters. The US has also merely placed ethnic representatives on the CPA, somehow ignoring the fact that there are such elements as left and right wing and other political sectors of an ethnic group of millions. So how "representative" they are is highly open to question. Not to say the US hasn’t also made decisions that should not be made until elected officials are in power (such as what should be privitised and what shouldn’t).

We will not know whether the constitution, legal system and those "representatives" in the CPA are acceptable to the Iraq populace until elections happen. We still have no idea when that will be.

If attacks like that in Karbala happen more regularly, we may be waiting longer than Afghanistan has for democracy to see the light of day in Iraq.

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