I have a hard time buying into the notion that Iraq is a true democracy. Yes, since the U.S. forced Saddam Hussein from power, Iraq has conducted free and open elections and has selected its own leaders. However, there’s more to a democracy than just elections, and I see Iraq as lacking in some of the other things that make a democracy a democracy. Two of them specifically lead me to question that country’s status as such.
First, Iraq’s government does not seem capable of standing on its own without the help of the U.S. It appears so fragile that it would likely crumble shortly after a U.S. pullout, even if that doesn’t occur for another 20 years. I don’t see it being able to prevent its various factions from turning on each other. In addition, its military’s ability to protect it from invading forces seems questionable at best.
Second, Iraq doesn’t appear to be completely autonomous. I’m not sure that, at this point (or any time soon), it would be allowed to determine its own direction in every matter. For example, what if Iraq decided to split itself into three separate nations, one for the Shiites, one for the Sunnis, one for the Kurds? Or suppose it wanted to do something a little less drastic like placing a high tariff on goods imported from North America?
Would the U.S. allow either of these things to happen? I think not, even though these are things that any genuine democracy would have the freedom to do. What is a democracy without self-determination? It isn’t.
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