state building

Whoa! I thought about this old forgotten blog while "studying" for my final tonight. So today I will update for you dedicated listeners and bored internet people. I have one small opinion thought that I may expand upon later, but maybe not, and one small link article that is interesting, or maybe not.

Thesis: The United States should use non-military leverage to block the pending Iraqi referendum on the U.S. presence there and remain in a military and supervisory role until stability is ensured.

Why: When oppressed and suppressed ethnic groups gain control of governmental authority, outside supervision and coercion is necessary to prevent retaliation by the empowered group and extreme human rights abuses. This can be observed most notably in Rwanda, Somalia, and the Balkans (Bosnia and Kosovo). Especially among nations that are divided so deeply along ethnic lines, outside intervention is necessary until protections are afforded for minority groups, infrastructure is rebuilt and semi-permanent order is restored.

Since the U.S. directly caused the current infrastructure destruction and political climate in Iraq, it has a responsibility to ensure regional stability before evacuating its forces. It happens that this continued presence is also in the interests of U.S. national security and economic stability due to possibility of terrorism training and equipping facilities being established in Iraq, and the need for stable oil supplies that are derived from the Middle East region.

In addition, when unsupervised, the process of democratization among historically destabilized and fractured countries has been shown to promote violence and inequality among groups. This is true in part because of the success of politicians that appeal to nationalistic and ethnic feelings and promote fear of oppression by opposing groups. These politics can be seen on a smaller scale among some in the American Republican party today and promote division, one of the keys to promoting domestic violence.

If given the chance, it most likely that the party in power will seek means of gaining more influence, which will promote the carrying out of ethnic desires that are inherently unequal. In this case, the means of the Shiite party gaining more power over the population is the acceleration of American troop withdrawals. It is effective also because this means is legitimized by its roots in the democratic ideals that the U.S. desires for Iraq to have.

Thus, it is my contention that the U.S. should maintain military and advisory presence in Iraq until stability is achieved in order to promote equality in the region and American interests on the whole. The first step towards this goal is the diplomatic prevention of the Iraqi referendum on U.S. troop presence to occur in December.

See article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/17/AR2009081700949.html?hpid=topnews

*This has been a small practice for my government test. Apologies for rampant grammatical errors, gross underdevelopment of points, failure to address counterarguments, and general boring-ness.