Gannett News Service

Voters' Voices

Jobs, the economy and the 2004 presidential election

Holiday Movie Preview 2004

Multimedia slide show with capsule previews of upcoming films

Deadly Weapons in Dangerous Hands

Special report about weapons of mass destruction

Losing Ground

Special report: Wetlands' demise ripples across nation

Iraq: After Saddam

Continuing coverage of the conflict in Iraq

Tuesday, April 8, 2003
Iraqi freedom will require more than bombs

By Jon Talton l The Arizona Republic

and Gannett News Service

Learn about Tomahawk
cruise missiles

Beyond smart bombs: High-tech weapons explained

Meet U.S. commanders directing the war

Learn about Iraq's most powerful men

Case against Saddam

Suiting up for chemical war

Saddam's rise to power

Key U.S. diplomatic players

Soon we must turn to winning the peace in Iraq. A transplanted democracy can thrive only in the healthy soil of a free economy.

Eliminating the regime of Saddam Hussein will do more than ease mortal threats to the Iraqi people and their neighbors.

Saddam wrecked the nation's economy by launching the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88, the first Gulf War and the intransigence with the United Nations that brought years of economic isolation.

The war with Iran alone cost Iraq $100 billion in economic losses.

The Heritage Foundation's useful Index of Economic Freedom catalogs the Baath regime policies that led to two decades of depression in an oil-rich nation. Saddam's Iraq is one of only 13 nations to score as "repressed."

Not surprising, political repression goes hand-in-glove with economic repression.

The state owns all major industries. Property rights are subject to the whim of the elite.

The government controls all prices, fails to guarantee contracts and discourages foreign investment.

But establishing liberal capitalism will take much more than the uprooting of a dictator. The Bush administration faces an urgent task of educating the American people about the time and treasure required.

The interplay among markets, politics, institutions and a free people is mysterious. We take its health for granted in the United States.

But as the lawless years in Russia after the fall of communism showed, "capitalism" can be a lawless rule of the jungle without a variety of civic virtues and healthy institutions.

Still, we should be skeptical of claims that healthy market institutions are impossible in Muslim countries. Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Oman have mostly free economies.

Similarly, authoritarian and totalitarian nations can evolve free institutions. We've witnessed this in all its messiness in many nations after the fall of communism.

The most dramatic examples are, of course, Germany and Japan after World War II.

American proconsuls can establish the rule of law and property rights. It will be more difficult, but essential, for these frameworks to be adopted by ordinary Iraqis.

That will require an equal emphasis on social justice - creating an economy where opportunity is widespread and the market is open to all.

Iraq's oil riches should make this transition easier. But the needs of a population ravaged by years of war are great, too.

The task is not limited to Iraq.

For years, Washington has shown an attention deficit when it comes to pushing for economic and political reform in the Middle East.

For example, the Clinton administration encouraged Egypt to reform its economy in order to diffuse Islamic extremism.

But the Saudis got a pass as long as the ruling elite provided cheap oil and bought American arms. Both parties have been guilty of this inconsistency.

If America is now to undertake the transformation of the Middle East with a democratic Iraq, we must be prepared to insist that Arab allies also liberalize their economies.

Winning the peace will take American commitment. The transformation of Germany and Japan required more than military victory. We also paid to rebuild infrastructure, ease suffering and establish free institutions.

A free Europe after World War II only came because of the Marshall Plan. When it was proposed in 1947, many Americans thought the initial $13 billion cost was too high.

It was some of the best money we ever spent.

Reach Talton at jon.talton@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8464.

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