The US political system is, on one hand, introverted and cares above all about its citizens’ concerns, while on the other hand, extroverted as it acts around the globe. In this context, when the US is acting on different parts of the world, it prioritizes looking inside the US and not at the countries in which it has intervened. Developments in Iraq set a good example for this. The US has been declaring that the intervention there was made in order to protect US citizens’ security and to grant freedom to the Iraqi people. The former is the result of looking at inside America, and the latter at the whole world. Nevertheless, the war in Iraq didn’t provide more security for Americans. Instead, they had to pay a bill of $2.2 trillion, and now they have more enemies and face a nuclear threat. Additionally, the US administration has disrespected democratic values, human rights and civil liberties in their own country. For the benefit of the war against terrorism, civil liberties have been suspended, prisons like Guantanamo have damaged the integrity of the judicial system, intelligence activities about finances obstructed economic liberalism and transparency became rare about the conduct of the war. Even Americans haven’t decided yet on how to determine who might be a war criminal. The US has internalized the war in Iraq, down to recent altercations over $12 billion worth of banknotes weighing 360 tons sent to Baghdad and accusations of corruption aimed at American officers. Iraq has become a problem for the Americans in every aspect. The center of the debate is not about what Americans did in Iraq to the Iraqis, but about the cost of all these actions for the Americans themselves.
The failure in the war is one of the main reasons for the Democrats’ success in the recent congressional elections. For this reason, the US administration has tried to resurrect respect for democracy, human rights and the state of law. This restoration process launched inside the US and its influence to the activities in other parts of the globe go together. The goal of the war in Iraq was explained in America as the “Iraqization” of this country. In other words, a process that aimed at the restructuring of a new Iraq by the Iraqis themselves. But Iraqis are not a homogenous society and every group has a different project about Iraq’s future. That’s why the Iraqis couldn’t take over Iraq immediately. As the US has its own democracy problems and is, no matter what, an occupying power, the credibility of his democratization project in Iraq has disappeared. That’s why the US has changed its methods and has launched the “Americanization” of Iraq instead of its “Iraqization.”
The “Americanization” of Iraq means the direct intervention by Americans in the social, economic and political restructuring mechanisms. Its main purpose is to secure Iraq, and that’s why the US is sending more troops there. Moreover, civilians will play an increased role through public diplomacy. In brief, the US has decided to restore its democracy from above according to the will of the people, but to restore the democracy in Iraq from the top according to its own will.
