The murderous attacks continue in Iraq and dominate the headlines. This is a struggle that is not simply about bombs and bullets. It is also about morale and morality. The morale of ordinary Iraqis has been dented and bruised by the confusion and bedlam that followed the US-led invasion. But it has not been broken for a very simple reason; however bad the horrors that have followed the downfall of Saddam Hussein and his henchmen, they pale in comparison to the nightmare of the Baathist dictatorship and 12 years of crippling sanctions. Miserable though the new experience of occupation has often been, it has nevertheless allowed a modicum of freedom for those who survived it. The hope that given wise, representative and unified leadership, Iraqis can make it to a peaceful and stable future is still alive.
The morality issue is no less important. The actions of the men of violence underline the total immorality of their motives. More and more it is ordinary Iraqis who have become their targets, men and women who mostly deplore Washington’s incompetent postwar policies but who are determined to work with what they have to build their country’s future.
The interim government continues to conduct itself with some sense, most recently with its new security laws. Had the authorities chosen to go for a draconian blanket security lockdown, they would have played into the hands of the terrorists. Not only would the measure have been hard to enforce over this large country but it could also have been represented as being a repressive throwback to the days of Saddam. Instead Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has taken limited powers which will enable security forces to target specific areas.
Curfews, checkpoints and the detention of suspects cannot be put in place for longer than 60 days. It has also been made clear that the government will not use these emergency powers to delay the elections scheduled for January. Privately Allawi aides have also said that the new law will not be used to curtail peaceful protest. Hopefully it will have dawned on some at least of Saddam’s diehard supporters who demonstrated last week in Fallujah that under their hero, any anti-government protest would have been met with ferocious reprisals. That they are free and alive despite their protests should awaken them to the new order in Iraq where their views could potentially count as much as anyone else’s.
If used adroitly, the new security powers will enable the Iraqi authorities to focus on individual areas on which the forces of law and order can concentrate. The rebels will of course seek to cause mayhem elsewhere, but gradually, inexorably their bases and hideouts will be found and destroyed and their ability to recover and regroup will be sapped. As long as Iraqis and their leaders remain constant and resolute, the terrorists cannot win and will in due course be defeated.
The hope must be that when that happens there can be some way to bring them and their supporters into the fold.
