16 December 2005
Rice Hails Iraq Elections as Extraordinary Victory for Iraqis
Secretary of state welcomes Senator McCain's resolution banning torture
By David Shelby
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Iraq’s December 15 legislative elections a historic day and an extraordinary victory for the Iraqi people.
“This really is a remarkable fresh start for the Iraqi people who've suffered too long under tyranny, who've suffered too long under conflict. And even though they have a difficult road ahead, this is a very happy day for the Iraqi people,” Rice told CBS News in a December 16 interview.
She said the elections, in which an estimated 70 percent of registered voters went to the polls to elect a 275-member Council of Representatives, demonstrated that the removal of Saddam Hussein was the right decision.
“It was not only an important decision morally, but strategically, to have an Iraq that is now voting and that is now solving its differences with politics, not with conflict and violence,” she said. “It's going to make a huge difference to the Middle East.”
She also urged the international community to take note of Iraq’s embrace of democracy and offer support. “[E]very country that's lucky enough to enjoy freedom has a responsibility and an obligation to the Iraqis to support them. And when I was in Europe, I have to say, people are starting to talk that way,” she told radio talk show host Tony Snow.
Rice said the elections show a growing commitment among the Iraqi people to the political system. “These people are making a choice for peace,” she told ABC News, “and that means that the time is coming in which this insurgency will have no foothold, in which it will be defeated, defeated by Iraqis and in which we can fully come home.”
She told Snow, “[W]hen you saw these parents with their little kids dipping their fingers in the inkwell, you know that these are parents who don't want their children to be suicide bombers. They want their children to go to university and grow up and become doctors and lawyers and maybe go into politics, some of them.”
The secretary cautioned that the Iraqis still face challenges including the security situation and the task of forming a government, which will require negotiations among the parties in the council.
She said that all of Iraq’s ethnic and religious communities will have a stake in the new council, which likely will form “a government that has to take all of those ideas into account. She said she expects a coalition government to emerge because no single group apparently has emerged politically dominant. "And that's good for democracy,” she said.
This is particularly important, she said, for the Sunni Arab population that turned out to vote in large numbers. “The Sunnis boycotted the January election. Many Sunnis were not favorably disposed to the constitution that was passed in October, but they went out in ever-larger numbers because they see their future as with the political process. They don't see their future with the violent people who are blowing up innocent people,” the secretary told NBC News.
She said this widespread commitment to the political process is a promising sign for Iraq’s future.
“[Y]ou see in Iraq, when you go into Baghdad, a great culture, a great city, a place that was once the center of Arab culture in the Arab world and they're going to draw on that greatness, but now in a way that supports the aspirations of their people and supports democracy, rather than tyranny,” she told Fox News.
Rice also hailed the agreement between the White House and Senator John McCain on the language of a resolution banning the use of torture by American personnel.
“[I]t is a real clear message to the world that the United States, as I said last week to my European counterpart, does not condone torture, would never condone torture, is a country of rule of law,” she told CBS.
She said it was important for the White House and the senator to arrive at language that would allow the president to “defend the American people and live within his international and American legal obligations.”
She added, “I want to be very clear that the president has always told everyone that he will not allow torture, he will not condone torture, that it is U.S. policy to respect our international obligations. We take them very, very seriously.”
Complete transcripts of Rice’s interviews are available on the State Department’s Web site:
Interview on ABC Good Morning America With Charles Gibson
Interview on CBS Early Show With Harry Smith
Interview on NBC Today Show With Katie Couric
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice On Fox News with Brit Hume
Interview on The Tony Snow Radio Show
For additional information, see Iraq's Political Process.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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