I just read Maureen Dowd latest column, "Where Is Euphrates Etiquette?" In it, she talked about the fact that the Bush administration is offended by the lack of gratitude expressed by the Iraqis and President Bush expects them to thank him. It led me to wonder if Iraqis should feel grateful for the Iraq War. The simplest way is to try to see what it brought them. The first answer is obvious and it the end of an oppressive dictatorship, the fact that Saddam Hussein is in a jail and not in one of his palaces. Another answer could be also freedom and democracy as President Bush would say. The problem is that after liberation followed a messy occupation and that the benefits of freedom and democracy are negated by insecurity and sectarian violence. Freedom is more than an abstraction only when it comes with the security necessary to exercise it and to do simple things such as going outside of one's house without being kidnapped or killed. The second question has America fulfilled his promise to Iraq? Iraqis had certain expectations, which were created not only by the promise that their lives would be better and by the fact that an occupying force had responsibilities, which were sure to be fulfilled since the United States is the most powerful country in the world. The ones, most grateful to the Americans are those who were able to become members of the new Iraqi political elite. After reading the first chapter of Fouad Ajami's book The Foreigner's Gift, one can come to the conclusion that the Shia (whether they are Iraqi or Iranian) are thankful for the war in Iraq. For the first time, they are able since Iraq was manufactured by the British to use their status as the majority ethnic group to rule the country. Will the Iraqi Shia repay America for its gift or will ethnic solidarity be more important than gratitude? Finally, the most important question to determine whether Iraqis should feel grateful toward America is whether anybody who didn't have to, would choose to live in Iraq.
The situation is too critical and too dangerous in Iraq for gratitude to be an important issue. Anyway, I think that expecting gratitude from Iraqis is not to understand History for never have a nation occupied felt grateful for the occupying country even if when before occupation came liberation.
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