Nation-building efforts by outside forces have ended in big disappointments. To this end, the most active nation builder, the United States' track record is unenviable. A population of 24 million Iraqis with a long-running ethnic and religious conflicts among the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds was not going to make the task any easier for a nation which has used its armed forces abroad at least a hundred times since its founding.
The internal characteristics of Iraqi society are severely tasting Washington's skill and resolve towards political transformation in post-war Iraq, US’ most ambitious nation-building project since Vietnam. The WMD fiasco and subsequent clashes, having claimed thousands of Iraqis, have made matters only worse and sparked further unrest. More American soldiers have died since Saddam's capture than before. With polls knocking, if Iraq stands at a crossroads, US is digging deep.
Recently, US President George Bush warned all reluctant allies that “no free nation can be neutral” in efforts to stabilise Iraq. Cleansing the Iraqi state of elements loyal to Saddam’s Baathist regime is by no means a small task either. One year after the famous “we-have-got-him” declaration by Paul Bremer, the then American governor of Iraq, this nation remains anything but normal.
- Sajjan Singh Thakur