07 April 2003
Armitage Foresees "Good Future" for Iraq
(U.S. will help Iraqis set up a representative and transparent government) (540) By Stephen Kaufman Washington File Staff Writer Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said he believed there will be "a good future for Iraq," with the establishment of a government representing all of its ethnic and religious communities. In separate interviews with Ralitsa Vasiliva of CNNI and Paula Zahn on CNN's American Morning April 7, Armitage said that helping the Iraqi people set up a new, more representative and transparent government was an important goal in the immediate post-war situation. He said the United States would consult with the Iraqi people, and would not seek to impose an Iraqi authority that would be unacceptable to the population. "[I]f we tried to dictate who will be the leader, even in the interim phase of Iraq, we may fail, and that would be a terrible tragedy after all this blood and treasure has been expended," he said on CNNI. Initially, a civilian administration led by retired U.S. Lieutenant General Jay Garner and other coalition members would replace the power vacuum left by Saddam Hussein's regime, in order to "provide initial goods and services to the people of liberated Iraq," said Armitage However, "General Garner's whole mission is to work himself and his colleagues out of a job as quickly as possible," he said. "We have to stay long enough to exploit potential WMD (weapons of mass destruction) sites and clearly to establish stability through the country, but we want to stay not a day longer than that," he told CNN's Paula Zahn. Armitage also said there was "no question" that the United Nations and organizations such as the World Food Program and the World Heath Organization should play roles in the future of Iraq. Yet he stressed in both interviews that the coalition members should, at least during the outset, have a "dominant say" in the reconstruction activities, since "it was the coalition members themselves who shed their blood and expended their treasure to liberate Iraq." On the question of whether an Iraqi interim administration should be made up of former exiles, or from those who remained inside the country, Armitage said the choice would have to be made by the Iraqi people themselves to "determine who is fit for future governance." Armitage was also asked to comment on widespread speculation that, with the end of the conflict in Iraq, the United States would soon take action against a regime in another country, such as Iran, Syria or North Korea. He told CNNI that while the Bush administration is sympathetic to what he termed a universal "yearning for democracy," it does not have a "one-size-fits-all" philosophy to encourage its spread. "[W]e will engage in the power of ideas and not necessarily will we use military force at every turn," said Armitage. "[I]t is our feeling that a basic yearning for democracy, in whatever form -- and there are many forms of democracy -- is something that is basic and inside of every human being. Now, we will not be able, nor should we try, to dictate the exact form or shape of that democracy," he said. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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