U.S. should rethink plans for new Iraq
by Connie Yu, Reporter

    As the administration unveils its outline for the post-Saddam Iraq, we are beginning to see potential problems.
    The Defense Department wants a quick occupation and a quicker transition. It plans to let friendly Iraqi exiles take control of the new government and divide authorities among other tribes, such as Sunni Muslims, Shiites and Kurds.
    This hit-and-run strategy sounds perfect, for Iraqi exiles understand the essence of democracy. The new government would be our loyal ally.
    But this plan overlooks many complications in the region. The Shiites and Kurds have control of their territories, and many of them have also bravely fought and died for the revolutionary cause. Would they accept the rule of the Iraqi exiles?
    When the united liberation effort ends, the new Iraq might be far from an integrated nation. Except for the common cause of ousting Hussein, each group has its own political agenda and ambitions.
    Also, the Iraqi people have never had a democracy, and we would revolutionize their political construct overnight. Freedom comes with responsibilities and compromise, and these people, many of them illiterate, would have to learn about democracy from the ground up. How exactly will a blink-of-an-eye transition achieve that?
    Thus, some involved in post-war country reconstructions have denounced the plan as unrealistic.
    Washington may discover the guy it picks as leader is not the Iraqi choice. Then what?
    The Bush administration has not answered these pressing questions. In the meantime, we are beginning to learn the underlying complexity of this war.
    Our image among the people we set out to save is not that different from the image they have of their ruthless dictator. Iraqi people dread the future as much as they have dreaded the past, and we found ourselves greeted with suspicion and fear.
    The road to a democratic, stable Iraq may be difficult and tricky, but we should make it happen-regardless of time.
If we sent our troops into the arid desert to liberate Iraq and sever its ties with terrorism, then we all have the duty to ensure that our government gets the job done.
    We must start asking those critical questions; we must press our government to openly discuss these issues; we must make sure the democracy in Iraq will be solidly rooted and truthfully practiced, independent of both tyranny and American control. We must prove to the rest of the world that our perished soldiers died for freedom, not empiricism; they sacrificed their lives for a moralistic cause, not the one of politics; their spirit lives on in the honor of the Iraqi people, not their criticism.