On many occasions, Iraqis were accused of being not able to understand or practice democracy and that they’ll need decades to fully absorb the concept. I myself had similar doubts. While when the argument goes about other nations (especially Europe) the Europeans are supposed to be very much ahead of Iraqis in this field and Europe is usually considered as a “sun of democracy”.
So, what is democracy?
In my opinion, a nation is called democratic when the citizens of this nation practice their right to decide their future and to choose the proper policy to build that future.
On the other hand, a nation cannot be considered democratic when the citizens of that nation are forced to adopt a certain attitude or to obey orders under the influence or the threat of an intrinsic or extrinsic overwhelming power.
If we assume that these distinctions between democracy and any other form of ruling a country; tyranny, theocracy, dictatorship…etc. are acceptable we’ll end up with horrifying predictions about Europe and at the same time optimistic ones about Iraq!
Iraqis were many times blamed by some of the free world citizens for being cowards and failing to stick together to topple Saddam, which seemed to those free people (who were born free) as the most natural reaction to tyranny!! Well I couldn’t agree more. However they forgot that they themselves had never practiced that and that they owe their freedom to the previous generations and they had only to enjoy it, a very hard task I suppose!
But truly, they do have a hard task and that is to maintain and defend their freedom, which their nations had to do whenever confronted with a serious threat and they were successful so far. Some very kind people say that they’re a shamed of taking their freedom for granted, and I have all the faith that these same people will be the best defenders of what they inherited through the sacrifices of their fathers.
On the other hand we have those who inherited freedom without even being aware of that, they just practice it and bash anyone for not fighting for it, which is so right as everyone should fight for his freedom, but the question is will they fight to defend their freedom?
The frightening thing about the Europeans is that their “sun of democracy” seems to be fading away and more frightening is that they’re not realizing in which direction they’re moving. From their point of view, they’re enjoying the achievements of the democracy and freedom they earned after decades of struggle. From my point of view, I think they’re on their way to loose what they have or more correctly, had. They (and of course I’m talking about some European countries, not the whole continent) are obeying direct orders from an evil power and taking the attitudes that that power desires to see after they were terrorized when confronted with real, mad and meaningless terrorism.
Let’s take a look back at Iraqis. They were saved from what seemed an endless torture, oppression and bloody crimes under the past regime and till now they’re suffering a lot more from terrorism than any other nation.
So what did they decide to do about it, and how do they feel about this situation?
They decided to walk the way to the end. They feel angry with terrorists doing all this damage to their lives and most important, they know who’s to blame and who’s behind the hardships they fight.
Iraqis made up their minds without any pressure from any power and they leading their country forward and they’re cooperating with the coalition and the GC not because they’re forced to do so. Iraqis now have the freedom of speech for the first time since decades and after they tasted freedom they will never accept to be slaves to anyone again, not for terrorists for sure and even not for the US or any coming government if they felt that the US or the present or future Iraqi administration is working against Iraqis’ interests. I’m sure that if Iraqis felt that the US or the GC are not respecting their rights they will go out to the streets in millions not thousands to voice their complain.
They’re ruling their country by their patience, courage and hope.
Although Iraqis didn’t have the chance to vote in elections yet but they’re showing that they’re willing to do everything to make that happen and once it happens they’ll defend it with their souls and blood because they earned it through the sacrifices they made and still making.
-By Omar.
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