Over the weekend Iraq concluded its national elections in which every ethnic group took part and had over sixty percent turnout of its people. Now this election is truly significant as a stable Iraq will enable American forces to return home, but there is much to be concerned about. First an election doesn’t solve all a nations problems only when its leaders address the concerns of its population, not just some of them, but all of them!
The elections have to show that that corruption was not part of the election process and that transparency with the results can be trusted by ordinary Iraqi’s. Iraqi leaders now must reconcile with the various ethnic groups namely Sunni’s and Kurdish to legitimize the government that is free from internal and external forces namely coming from Iran.
To effectively govern the new government has to provide economic stability and industrial growth that will reverberate across the country that benefit all Iraqis not only a select few. Security needs to be established to protect the nation from sectarian forces and against external threats as American forces begin the final pullout in 2011.
The Iraqi government needs to begin passing oil, investment, and tax laws that are needed to bring economic growth to the nation. It has to stabilize the security apparatus that is independent of the United States as it departs the country and that it can act on its own.
The United States has spent much treasure in Iraq not only in monetary contributions but in the lives of its service personnel, it must not abandon Iraq too quickly, but mentor along the process to ensure a stable Iraq.
The president must take the lead on this and not place it to the back burner to focus on domestic priorities, only recently as last week has he spoken on Iraq. He has to take the lead or face its repercussions of the failure of Iraq reverting back to sectarian infighting and external pressure from Iran.
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