From Americans to Iraqis: Happy Civic Obligation Day

One of the many problems of even a benign dictatorship (and yours surely was not) is that both reward and punishment come down from the leader. As an Iraqi citizen under Saddam, you had no rights, but beyond obeisance to the dictator, you had no civic obligations either.

Now you do. This is both the best opportunity and the biggest challenge the United States has bequeathed to you with your liberation.

One of the many problems of even a benign dictatorship (and yours surely was not) is that both reward and punishment come down from the leader. As an Iraqi citizen under Saddam, you had no rights, but beyond obeisance to the dictator, you had no civic obligations either.

Now you do. This is both the best opportunity and the biggest challenge the United States has bequeathed to you with your liberation.

A great deal has been written about the difficulty of building a democracy – some of which is true, most of which is designed to scare people off. Yes, the list of countries that tried it and failed is long – but consider the list of those that tried and succeeded. The only really hard thing about democracy is knowing that it works from the bottom up, not the top down. Your local council elections were important because they were local, but voting isn’t enough. As you take your country back, sweat the small stuff and remember that your country is what you make it.

Americans spend a lot of time talking about rights, but despite a certain lack of emphasis on civic responsibility, hard wired into our consciousness seem to be certain sureties about the limitations of those rights: Free speech is a right; yelling “fire” in a crowded theater is a crime. Criticizing our government is a right; calling for armed insurrection is sedition.

The bottom up principle also appears to be hard wired. Americans run for school board and county council and join the army. Americans pick up trash in parks; volunteer in schools, soup kitchens and shelters; serve on juries; raise and give money for charity; coach Little League; and adopt children. We pass out campaign literature, make phone calls and monitor polling booths on Election Day. Whether we make the connection out loud or not, these things are parts of our responsibility for running our country – and if we don’t do them or pay for them, who will? The “government?” The secret of democracy is that the “government” is nothing more than “us” in organized form.

We have been hugely impressed with the tens of thousands of Iraqis who signed up for the civil police, border guards and army. Yes, some joined to undermine Iraqi security from the inside and others joined and ran away when the fight came (many of those had decent intentions but only a few weeks of training). But watching the terrorists blow up hundreds of Iraqi police and soldiers over the past few months and seeing hundreds more line up to take their place, we cannot help but think those police know that this is their best chance to change the course of Iraqi (and Arab) history.

The rest of the Iraqi people have to help them now, bottom up, beginning with denying sanctuary to the terrorists who would rule you from above again.

It’s not quite the 4th of July, but Americans are already gearing up. Here’s hoping that this year Iraqis also get the sense of freedom coupled with civic responsibility that we Americans generally take for granted, but which is the bedrock of civilized government.