The wild growth of mobile-phone service in Iraq is rightly held up as one of the great success stories in a chronically war-battered country that’s now trying to put a new, representative government in place amid rumblings of all-out civil war.
Since reconstruction, launched in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and overthrow of the sadistic Saddam Hussein in 2003, mobile-phone subscribership has grown from the thousands-most operated by Saddam sycophants-to more than 4 million. The construction of cell-phone base stations throughout Iraq has taken place in the face of fierce fighting by insurgents, Sunnis and Shiites. Dr. Siyamend Othman, chief executive officer of the Iraqi National Communications and Media Commission, deserves much of the credit for the wireless wave sweeping his nation.
Unfortunately for President Bush, the wireless explosion in Iraq is overshadowed by other, far less benevolent kabooms. Indeed, uncertainty over the continued U.S. presence in Iraq and prospects for a wholesale Iraqi implosion are contributing heavily to the president’s free-falling job-approval rating. As such, White House aides are trying to highlight progress on the creation of a new Iraqi government, one that might be capable of keeping the peace without help from U.S. troops and others.
So the irony was not lost when last week the new Iraqi legislature, just a couple of days into its session, went into raucous meltdown mode and temporarily closed shop after a ringtone of the Shiite Muslim chant variety went off on a Shiite Muslim lawmaker’s mobile phone during legislative proceedings. Then it happened a second time. That, according to news reports, ignited a confrontation between the lawmaker’s bodyguard and security aides of the parliament’s speaker-a Sunni. From there, Sunni and Shiite lawmakers exchanged heated words, a boycott threat, allegations of brutality and finally a call for an investigation. After the brouhaha, legislative activity reportedly resumed behind closed doors.
There are a couple of ways to look at all this. One is that the incident is a mere foreshadowing of a long, post-Saddam future of feuding among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds in a way that effectively institutionalizes instability. That’s not good for Iraq, Bush’s legacy, Republicans in the mid-term elections or anyone else-except out-of-power Democrats.
A more generous interpretation is that the Iraqi parliament is looking more like the U.S. Congress everyday. After all, imitation is the greatest form of flattery. I guess that is what exporting democracy is all about.
