Iraq Democracy Challenges Iran

Next President’s Iraq War, (Washington Times)…Austin Bay, Oct 17, 2008. p25.

In a month, Iraq will be the next president’s war. From the American perspective, the next president’s phase of the Iraq war will be twofold. First off, it will be a proxy war with Iran’s tyrannical mullahs. The second “fold” will be even more strategically significant: The next president’s war will measure America’s commitment to defending democracy and promoting genuine international security in the 21st century.

The Iraqi perspective differs a shade. Iraq’s war will be yet another Iran-Iraq war, but one where the Iraqis will have an organizational advantage and a significant ideological edge.Iraq’s organizational advantage has two components. First and foremost, Iraq engages Iran with the United States as an active ally – unless the next U.S. president proves feckless and makes the inexcusably stupid mistake of denying Iraq diplomatic and military support in a crisis.Iraq’s second organizational advantage is its increasingly capable military and more responsive government.The next president will be tested by these robed thugs.Iraq’s emerging democracy presents the mullahs with a complex challenge. Democracy gives Iraq an ideological advantage in its struggle with Iran’s dictatorship. Disgust and discontent has become a way of life inside Iran. The Khomeinist revolution has failed and fossilized as a corrupt theocracy backed by secret police and Revolutionary Guards. The Iranian people look west and see Iraqi Arabs and Kurds seizing a historic opportunity to create their own open, democratic system – and they know the mullahs are the gangsters denying them that opportunity.