Proposal for the Reconstruction of Iraq

The proper handling of Iraq's reconstruction was perhaps the most hotly debated topic of 2005. How, exactly, does someone take a country that has been subject to a violent dictatorship for thirty years and turn it into a free, equitable society? To Quote Bill Cosby, the first thing to keep in mind is, "the key to failure is trying to please everybody." There is no solution that will produce 100% satisfaction with the Iraqi people.

What Iraqis need is the best alternative: something that will produce the greatest amount of satisfaction for Iraqis as a whole. To attain maximum satisfaction, an order of focus must be determined from the four areas of security, politics, social factors, and economics. Once the order has been defined, it will be possible to lay out the groundwork for each specific area.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of the Iraq reconstruction is the determination of a primary focus of attention. In determining this primary focus, it is easy to get into a chicken versus egg type of situation. It is not possible to have a stable government without a secure environment; however, there cannot be security without an organized government to enforce security with a military. There is, however, a way around this conundrum. Instead of looking at four, mutually exclusive areas, look at the areas as interdependent areas that flow from one to the next.

For example, if the current primary focus is the establishment of a legitimate government, there will still be attempts to secure the country. This is not to say that the events are lumped together in one homogeneous sum. There are still events that will dominate at specific times; however, just because something is not the primary focus of the moment does not necessarily exclude it from thought or consideration. That being said, the first focus area should be security. After securing the country, the government will have a chance to take hold.