Iraq: Republic of fear

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI30Ak02.html

DAMASCUS - This author attended a conference this year on Iraq with leading administrators, analysts and politicians from Iraq and the Middle East. One question was put forward on how the new Iraqi leaders could bring security to Iraq when nearly 1,500 people were dying per month from sectarian violence and terrorist attacks.

The Iraqi participants, all members of the post-Saddam Hussein regime, started an intellectual debate on which security and anti-terrorism campaigns would best fit war-torn Iraq. They were fine men indeed, all groomed in the finest schools of Europe and the United States, with honorable careers in opposing Saddam from the diaspora. Their ideas were good for a television debate or an op-ed in a US newspaper, but very difficult to implement when it came to Iraqi domestics.

Although it is difficult for Iraqis and Americans to admit, Iraq needs a strongman to bring order and stability. In 1990, Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi went to Iran to discuss problems in the Middle East with Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Gandhi asked the president who would, should or could replace Saddam as president of Iraq.

After pondering for a minute, Rafsanjani replied, "Saddam Hussein." Only Saddam, he said, could rule a country so divided and sectarian as Iraq. That statement is not entirely correct, but it carries a lot of truth in it. Iraq today does not need a Saddam Hussein, but it does need a very strong and able leader with talent, character and power, backed by a united and focused central government.