Many hurdles block the road to peace in Iraq
Apr 11, 2003
Washington - Now that a victory is within grasp with the Iraq invasion, the powers-that-be in the United States are keener on achieving peace.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said the envisaged objectives were clear and included a country free of weapons of mass destruction with a representative government which would not disintegrate.
The question of how these objectives were to be achieved was a far more complex matter which was difficult to address, he said.
Experts such as the long-term Congress member Lee Hamilton listed three highly explosive prerequisites before even speaking of a military success:
Certainty about Saddam's fate would help smash the resistance of his last remaining supporters.
US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld described the former strongman as "no longer active".
But if his name continues to crop up in the media in the way Osama bin Laden's does, the change of government in Iraq would remain incomplete.
Such a scenario could lead to problems if the building of a "new Iraq" is accompanied by rivalry among the various ethnic groups.
US media claim that the White House will be confronted with an enormous credibility problem, if weapons of mass destruction are not found, which in turn would effect post-invasion Iraq.
Getting rid of such weapons was a major war objective. The US faulted Baghdad for an unaccounted 25 000 litres of anthrax, 38 000 litres of botulinum, 500 tons of sarin, mustard and nerve gases plus 30 000 projectiles for chemical weapons.
President George Bush's administration is confident of finding them, although Rumsfeld is already on record as saying the materials could have been been brought out of the country.
The US and Britain want to transfer reponsibility for Iraq to an interim government made up of Iraqis as quickly as possible.
US Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz believes this could be achieved once the supply and administration systems had been rebuilt.
An interim government would then work towards electing a new government either via local elections or based on a new, democratic constitution.
Yet, Washington's designated administrator, retired army general Jay Garner, has not even arrived in Iraq from Kuwait.
The interim government is expected to emerge from a process that is likely to begin next week at an airbase near Nasiriyah with a regional meeting, attended by exiled politicians and Hussein's opponents residing in Iraq.
Experts said it will probably be several months before the process can be concluded with a large conference in Baghdad.
The main issue is likely to be a division of power between Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds and the question of whether a central or decentralised system should be established and with or without Hussein's former officials in the Baath party.
A representative of the Kurdish Institute in Washington, Michael Amitey, told Bloomberg agency: "It's a real mess".
He said all sides could agree in principle to democracy, but they would have different perceptions of what this entails. - Sapa-DPA