Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Best case scenario for Iraq is to be like Russia?

"The best-case scenario for Iraq is that it will be another Russia — an imperfect, corrupt, oil democracy that still holds together long enough so that the real agent of change — a new generation, which takes nine months and 21 years to develop — comes of age in a much more open, pluralistic society. The current Iraqi leaders are holdovers from the old era, just like Vladimir Putin in Russia. They will always be weighed down by the past. But as Putin is discovering — some 21 years after Russia’s democratic awakening began — that new generation thinks differently. I don’t know if Iraq will make it. The odds are really long, but creating this opportunity was an important endeavor, and I have nothing but respect for the Americans, Brits and Iraqis who paid the price to make it possible."

2 comments :

Anonymous said...

Time to bring back the Khalifa

Joel Wing said...

I can't believe I'm agreeing with Tom Friedman! His point about having to wait for the current political leadership in Iraq to past before there is real change in Iraq is spot on. I would actually say Nigeria is a better comparison with Iraq. It has a corrupt incompetent government, a lack of services, oil smuggling, lawlessness, breakaway groups in the south who occassionally carry out attacks.