A Peace of Their Own

SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq — No one wants a war in Iraq less than the Iraqi people. But we don't have the luxury of being antiwar. For the last 35 years, the Baathist regime has been waging war against Iraqis. We know that there can be no peace without the military liberation of Iraq. The brutality of Saddam Hussein's regime leaves Iraqis and the civilized world with no other option.

And so, not for the first time, a persecuted people is asking for help in dislodging a dictatorship. But we also ask that the U.S. protect and nurture a postwar Iraqi democracy. The U.S.-led campaign must be about more than simply eliminating weapons of mass destruction and forcing a regime change. Rather, the use of force must yield a clear political gain: the foundation of a democratic state that will be at peace with its own people and with the Middle East.

It is too often forgotten that Iraq is the ultimate failed state, the twisted product of British colonialism. From its beginning, the Iraqi state brutalized its Kurdish minority and excluded the Shiite majority. Although uniquely brutal, the present Baath dictatorship is also a symptom of the closely interwoven political and military structures that evolved from the colonial era. With little base of support, Baghdad regularly used force to impose its will.

The transition from the status quo to a democratic state is a process in which the U.S. and the international community will have to play a pivotal role. The U.S.-led coalition will be instrumental in getting rid of dictatorship. And the U.S. military will undoubtedly be central to stabilizing the security environment and offering the Iraqis the space within which they can develop a democratic system.

But peace in postwar Iraq, much less democracy, cannot be established without the full participation of the nation's secular democratic movements and other indigenous political groups, including religious establishments and even tribes. Iraq has a long history of both political and social opposition to the Baath regime, and the regime's diverse opponents will all want to play a role in shaping a postwar Iraq.

A national transitional authority, drawing from these domestic political movements and aided by the U.S.-led coalition and the United Nations, must be quickly put into place. A delay in handing over power to a national authority will play into the hands of undemocratic anti-Western forces, not only in Iraq, but also in the wider Islamic world.