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June 19, 2003
The State of Iraq
Note: this is a post recovered from my old blog, before it died of an insufficient backup. Any comments/trackbacks on it have not been brought over, but can be seen with the original. The date is that of the original posting.
It seems to me that there is a perfectly reasonable solution about what to do with Iraq politically, which would settle for once and all the question of occupation, as well as giving our actions an unprecedented amount of legitimacy. We should announce that we will give the Iraqis the opportunity to become the 51st State.
We will need to completely restore order, to the point of being able to ensure that political violence and intimidation would be minimized, conduct a census of the people of Iraq, and when both of these are complete, hold a referendum, which I imagine could be held within a year. If a majority of Iraqis vote to accept territoriality, then the United States would appoint a Governor, and would proceed to do everything necessary to prepare Iraq for statehood, including the establishment of all of the freedoms, structures and order that we have here, with local laws being decided by the Governor and such officials as he appoints. At this point, the US would assume Iraqi national debt and contracts, would begin the payment of such benefits and collection of such taxes as are appropriate to a territory, and would in all ways make Iraq as much a part of the US as is Guam or the US Virgin Islands. This would include the right of Iraqi registered voters to vote for President, and presumably for non-voting representatives (such as DC has).
During the period of preparation, perhaps 10 years, we would also be conducting massive public education of both adults and near-adults in the theory of American governance. Part of this would be to progressively elect governments, starting at the local level and continuing up through an Iraqi legislature. At the end of this preparatory period, when a set of conditions made public before the conduct of the first referendum was put forward has been met, we would conduct put to the legislature a bill to request a statehood referendum.
If the legislature passed that bill, and the Iraqi people agreed by referendum, then the Iraqi legislature would write a State Constitution to be submitted to the Congress with a petition for statehood, which I imagine the Congress would grant.
The nice thing about this plan is that we win either way. If the Iraqis decide in the first referendum not to become a territory, we concur, do what we need to do to stabilize and pacify Iraq, and then step out of local politics. If the government they form asks us to leave, we leave. If the Iraqis decide to become a territory, but reject statehood, then we concur, step out of local politics, and offer them commonwealth status. If they reject that as well, we concur. If the newly-formed government asks us to leave, we leave. In any case, either we will gain a new State and an infusion of new ideas and citizens, or we will gain immense goodwill by being willing to offer such a massive benefit, and by being gracious in accepting the refusal of such an offer, if it comes.
Actually, while we're at it we might offer statehood to the Canadian provinces from Manitoba westwards. But let's not advertise it with 54-40 or fight, I think.
UPDATE (6/4): Michael Totten has a different take.
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