2005 Speeches

Iraq's Path to Democracy

Remarks by Ambassador Rodolphe Vallee to the Slovak Foreign Policy Association, Presov

November 7, 2005

Good afternoon, and thank you for allowing me a few thoughts at this gathering of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association. I commend you on your very fine work, particularly on the issue of democracy in Central Europe, and I am delighted to be here today to rejoice in the world's most recent democracy - the Republic of Iraq.

Two and a half years is a short time in most history texts. It is certainly not a long time in the development of a democratic nation. Yet it is in precisely this timeframe that the people of Iraq, freed from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, have put together the world's most recent democracy - unified, pluralistic, democratic, and federal.

Here in Slovakia, in self-governing regions across the country, political parties will be juggling their coalitions and party lists, seeking advantage in your regional elections this month. At the same time, Iraqi parties are doing the same thing in anticipation of December parliamentary elections. This all seems sometimes messy, but it is democracy. And we should applaud the courage of the Iraqi people and the passion of those who defend their right to be free.

But often in the salons of the world's great cities, in the editing rooms of national newspapers, and in the lecture halls of famous universities we see the difficulties of this effort magnified in a way that undermines its worthy nature. And this is aided by the impatient intensity of 24-hour news programs whose ability to shock with images of bloodshed and mayhem masks the quiet progress that is being made.

Of course there have been mistakes in this march to freedom. But these failures, while important to debate and address, should not undermine the greater purpose. And they should be observed with some historical perspective.

For example, after D-Day in 1944, our troops were unprepared for the heavy hedgerows of the French countryside. So American GIs welded steel to their tanks. In Iraq, our humvees needed protection from improvised explosive devices, and we again welded steel. And the unexpected delays faced by D-Day armies in crossing the Cherbourg peninsula were not deemed a "quagmire," but a significant challenge from a determined enemy. This is a perspective we need to remember today.

Here's a quote from a newspaper, 18 months after the fall of a totalitarian capital. "This is a land in an acute stage of economic, political, and moral crisis. Capitals are frightened. In every military headquarters, one meets alarmed officials then intent to deal with the consequences of the occupation policy they admit has failed." You probably are wondering which European newspaper wrote this about Iraq and how recently. But in fact this was written in 1946 by the New York Times, one and a half years after the fall of Berlin. But as the patient periscope of history shows, not only did Germany rise into one of the world's greatest democracies, she was joined equally democratic resurgence in Japan, a country where then-contemporary cynics saw a history incompatible with democracy. Once again the impatience of the cynics was proven wrong.

My country has breathed freedom for almost 230 years. We, of course, were not perfect at the beginning, nor are we perfect now. We enslaved African Americans for almost a century. It took us yet another to truly set them free. But we have always been guided by the strong belief that the democratic ideals of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Madison are not ideas limited to American soil. "Freedom," as President Bush often says, "is God's gift to mankind."

It is a gift that every Slovak treasures. It is an Iraqi gift that should not be viewed through the cynical lens of opportunistic politics, but from the perspective of your own proud steps to freedom. You gathered peacefully to light candles, to sing hymns, and to pray for tyranny to leave. At first your candles were extinguished, your hymns silenced, your prayers temporarily unanswered. But nothing could stop the power of freedom, which drove away the forces that extinguished your freedom.

It is true your road to liberty had a few bumps on the way. You fought off Communism only to find cronyism. You threw off cronyism, only to find cynicism. But I see that you have thrown off cynicism too, as you became increasingly involved in the community of nations.

And the march forward of the Iraqi people continues. We saw in the constitutional referendum a record turnout of people proudly displaying once again their purple fingers. In Fallujah, the symbol of bloodshed some mere months ago, 100,000 people voted. And you should be proud of the role Slovak troops played in this milestone of liberty.

Yet many in this country and abroad criticize my country's actions. In the run-up to the liberation of Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell was asked by an anti-Iraq war official from Europe why American armies so often descend on foreign lands. "Sir," replied Secretary Powell, "our armies (if you recall) have twice been to the European continent this century, and the only thing we have asked for are small plots of earth to bury the dead we leave behind." And we ask only that the Slovak, American and other coalition partners be remembered as warriors who stood against modern-day fascism and its immeasurable brutality.

At the end of the Cold War we shared the great optimism that the high principles of collective action would lead us into a new world. We had seen such optimism in the past when Woodrow Wilson and the supporters of the League of Nations held such ideals. But in one generation after Wilson, we witnessed the return of evil and the horrors of Auschwitz. More recently, the world embraced the high principles of the UN. But we have witnessed Rwanda, Cambodia's killing fields, and Saddam's outdoor gas chambers.

We must not forget that idealism is not enough without patience, strength, and a willingness to confront evil. Many had a false hope in the ultimate good intentions of those who used rape, torture chambers, and ethnic hatred to accomplish their own self-serving stability. Such thoughts resided in those who excused the regime of Saddam Hussein. But what a different world we would have had if Hitler's Brown Shirts had been defeated early in their neighborhoods rather than later on the battlefields of Europe. Zarqawi's brand of fascism must be defeated in the neighborhoods, as we see brave Iraqis and coalition forces doing everyday.

And it will be the purple on the finger - and not the swastika on the armband - that will prevail.

The extremists who seek to turn Iraq once again into a land governed by thugs and assassins are part of a global network of terror and extremism. They view democracy and freedom with contempt and hatred. Iraq for them is simply the front line of a battle to spread jihadist extremism across the world - aided by modern technology, which can have frightening consequences.

Some dismiss these activities as extreme and fanatical and doomed to fail under their own weight. But other fanatics - Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot - were dismissed initially as fringe actors until their fanaticism consumed whole nations in war and genocide before leaving the stage of history. As President Bush has said, "Evil men, obsessed with ambition and unburdened by conscience, must be taken very seriously, and we must stop them before their crimes multiply."

Some now argue that our actions in Iraq have strengthened these forces of evil, as if September 11 occurred after the liberation of Iraq. Or as if the murderers of school children in Beslan were confused and believed that Russia had supported the U.S. effort in Iraq. Or as if Zarqawi's henchmen, now under indictment in Germany, were not already active in their evil many years ago.

And like all the great struggles my country has faced - fascism, Communism, and now jihadism - we have neither asked for it, nor have we forgotten our friends and partners as we once again answer history's call.

And we have no illusions about this new threat. Our effort will require more sacrifice, more time, and more resolve. It will also require patience. "It is true," President Bush has said, "that the seeds of freedom have only recently been planted in Iraq, but democracy, when it grows, is not a fragile flower, but a sturdy tree."

As Secretary Rice explained recently, our strategy is to clear, hold, and build. On the first point, the Iraqi military continues to gain in strength and confidence, with 90 battalions in combat with our forces, up from just a few a year ago. These battalions continue to clear neighborhoods of jihadists.

Second, as Sunni participation in the political process has increased, jihadists from outside Iraq are prevented from returning to neighborhoods they once dominated.

But it is the third point, the building of lasting democratic institutions, that continues inexorably forward. Just last week in an assembly hall on the Tigris River, Ayad Allawi, the former prime minister, told a coalition of Communists, Arab nationalists, tribal sheiks and imans that he would lead their coalition to victory. Sunni Arabs, who stayed away during the January parliamentary elections, are likely to increase their numbers. This is particularly true in Anbar and Salahuddin provinces, and the Sunnis may see gains in provincial Baghdad, Nineveh, Diyala and Kirkuk.

The various Shiite coalitions are constantly changing. It is a story of new alliances, broken alliances, shifting alliances - in a word, "democracy." This is of course something that seems warmly familiar to observers of the Slovak political scene.

For years there has been in the West skepticism about the desire or capacity of Middle Eastern peoples for self-government. Some think Islamic and democratic values are contradictory. Others believe that "realism" must trump freedom in the parlor game of foreign affairs.

But, as President Bush has said, "It is not realism to suppose that one-fifth of humanity is unsuited for liberty; it is condescension, and we should have none of it." The Palestinian people voted, not just once, but twice, for their leadership in national and regional elections. The Lebanese people followed, urged on by united support from the U.S. and Europe. The Egyptians have opened their door to democracy by a crack. Women now vote in Kuwait. In Saudi Arabia, municipal elections were held.

Yes, my own government has in the past bought time by overlooking tyranny for the sake of stability only to find totalitarianism and no stability. But President Bush has implemented a "forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East," and it continues to gain momentum.

But this forward strategy of freedom cannot be imposed from abroad. "Freedom," says the President, "by definition must be chosen, and defended by those who choose it. Our part, as free nations, is to ally ourselves with reform, wherever it occurs,"

Today I have come to speak with those of you who care deeply about issues of foreign policy, of freedom and democracy, debated here in the parlors of Presov. And I'd like to leave you one final thought.

I was told that an Iraqi jurist visiting Slovakia for legal training was asked by his host what he saw for his country five years down the road. "I hope," he said, "that I will be doing for my Arab neighbors what you are doing for me."

Such is the power of freedom.