An excellent article that well states what many conservatives in America have been thinking: Government by ethnic groups like that attempted in Iraq, is doomed to failure; a stable representative democracy can only work if the rights of the individual, in contrast to ethnic "group rights, are central to a constitution.
The battle for democracy in Iraq will be won when the citizens of that country stop thinking of themselves as Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites -- but simply as "Iraqis."
In order to solve the sectarian problem in Iraq and for the transitory government to be able to form a genuine "national unity government," they and we should change both our rhetoric and our policy and make clear the message that a national unity government for Iraq should be one that is grounded not on a coalition of all parties representing ethnic loyalties but on the consent of all Iraqis, every single one of them. The key to solving ethnic conflict is not to sharpen ethnic differences but to neutralize them. Hence, we should not allow a government that confers group rights to groups. Rather, we should encourage a government that rules to secure and maintain individual rights. This should have been our message from the very beginning, but there is no reason not to change it now. For the sake of establishing real equality of rights and authentic self-government for all Iraqis, they and we must contemplate being republican schoolmasters to a new generation.
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