Saddam Execution - Golden Opportunity

by
Jaime O. Perez
Editor, Border Observer

The execution of Saddam Hussein is a golden opportunity to create a federal government comprised of 5 geographic districts where one is solidly led by Sunni, Shi’a and Kurd leaders (3) and two other districts led by a coalition of Kurd and Shi’a (1) and another of Sh’ia and Sunni (1).

Such geographic segmentation underlying a democratically elected federal government is the best hope for peace in Iraq. Increased troop strength of a minimum of 20,000 can bolster the force necessary to achieve this governmental regime.

There can be no other solution that can ensure peace in the medium and long-term.

The internal regime design must come with a credible and forceful regional military presence and the political will communicated through allies of immediate and swift retribution for any movement not in the Iraqi and hence, not in the American national interest.

The execution of Saddam Hussein provides the additional opportunity to dismantle the current regime in a signal to Sunni’s the United States is serious about a long-term, federal Iraqi government.

The context for this peace must include a strong signal to Israel and Palestine that they must find a workable short-term two-state solution to their historic divide.

The alternative is not acceptable. If the execution of Saddam Hussein is presented to the Sunni’s as a signal of resolve to dismantle their militias and bring down their military and political insurgent leaders, then it will have been a missed opportunity. The result of such an approach will ensure a protracted insurgent commitment that will lead to a sectarian implosion of Iraq as a viable state and the assurance of regional war in the long-term.

Bush has the blood of thousands of American soldiers on his hands and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who made a commitment to democracy. The cry, of the martyrs for Iraqi freedom, those American young men and women who have their life and who risk it every day, demands the death of Saddam Hussein and the opening of a solution to the best national hopes of all Iraqis and all Americans.

A federal Iraq with a coalition of five leaders is the only and best hope for peace in the region.