Considering how long the development of democracy took in the United States, John Comly thinks Iraq is doing as well as can be expected.
“If the goal is to create a functioning democracy that fosters freedom of thought and expression and the opportunity for advancement, that process is a long one,” said Comly, 25, a financial analyst at Thayer Capital Partners, a Washington, D.C., private equity firm.
After all, he said, America not only had to survive a bloody Civil War but needed nearly 200 years to outlaw segregation of blacks.
“This is a great and remarkable first step for that region,” said Comly, who describes himself as a moderate Republican.
“There are a lot of people who do not want to see freedom and liberty succeed there,” he said. The invasion of Iraq “is without question the most important foreign policy decision America has made in a number of years, if not decades, and most likely will make in the next several decades, and it absolutely has to be a successful operation.”
Comly supported President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq, disputing critics who called it a distraction from the war on terrorism.
“There’s no evidence that links Iraq to Sept. 11, but I do believe that it’s part of the war on terrorism, because the way to fight the war on terrorism is by bringing democracy and freedom to areas of the world that are lacking those things. Because they’re lacking these basic necessities, that gives birth to terrorism.”
–Stevenson Swanson
`Bad policy, a disastrous mistake’
Randy Broderick thinks the newly elected Spanish prime minister picked the right word to describe the U.S.-led coalition effort in Iraq. “It’s a disaster for us,” said Broderick, 52, a theater stagehand, echoing the recent remarks of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
Broderick, of Holmdel, N.J., believes the occupation of Iraq is failing because innocent Iraqis have been killed, the U.S. is viewed with increasing suspicion by other nations, and the attack on Iraq is likely to draw more terrorist assaults on the U.S.
“Ultimately, these people feel they have to get even,” he said. “And their way of fighting back is to resort to terrorism. So any way that we encourage that is a bad policy, a disastrous mistake.”
Broderick describes himself as a pacifist, but he supported the American-led effort to oust the Taliban in Afghanistan.
“There was a response required for 9/11, and Al Qaeda was pretty much invented there,” said Broderick, a registered Democrat who has two grown children. “It seemed appropriate to go in there and straighten that out.”
But President Bush never made a convincing case to justify the invasion of Iraq, he said. And the rising death toll of U.S. troops and Iraqis testifies to the gargantuan task America has undertaken.
“We have no options right now,” he said. “We’re going to have to foot the bill, but we need to allow the international community to take it over, and then tough out the resistance.”
–Stevenson Swanson
