D,Cheney and D.Rumfield comment on democracy forming in Iraq

SOURCE: Yahoo! News - Cheney Says He Doesn't See Iraq Theocracy

Sun Feb 6, 2:11 PM ET

White House - AP

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday brushed off concern that Islam will be the guiding principle of Iraq new government, saying the country has the right to shape its own democracy without becoming "an Iraqi version of America."

"They will do it their way," Cheney said. "They will do it in accordance with their culture and their history and their beliefs and whatever role they decide they want to have for religion in their society. And that's as it should be."

The United Iraqi Alliance — a Shiite-led group whose leaders have ties to neighbor Iran — has taken a big lead in results being tallied for the Jan. 30 election.

Cheney said he does not think that means Iraq will have a theocracy like that in neighboring Iran, where individual rights are restricted.

The vice president noted that Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, has said he does not believe clerics should play a direct role in the day-to-day operations of government. (note: this is Not consistant with what Sistani is Now saying. Read my previous post: "The End of Democracy in Iraq" ~TC)

"I think there are a great many people involved in the political process in Iraq who will seek some kind of balance," Cheney told "Fox News Sunday."

"But in the final analysis, the bottom line for everybody to remember here is, this is not going to be, you know, an Iraqi version of America. This is going to be Iraqi. It's going to be written by the Iraqis, for the Iraqis, implemented and executed by them," Cheney said.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld also said Sunday he doubts Iraq will model its government after Iran's. Such a move would be "a terrible mistake," Rumsfeld said, while still acknowledging that Iraqis will establish their government on their terms.

Rumsfeld said other countries with predominantly Muslim populations include their faith without having it dominate. He said it is unlikely that Iraq will end up with a government like Iran's, "a handful of mullahs controlling much of the country."

"I think it would just be an enormous mistake for that country to think that it could succeed with all of its opportunity — with its oil, its water, its intelligent population — to deny half of their population, women, to participate fully, I think just would be a terrible mistake," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

While calling political debate in Iraq "thrilling, absolutely thrilling" in light of its democratic elections, Rumsfeld acknowledged the likelihood of problems as its government takes shape. He compared the transition to the imperfect Constitution that allowed the exclusion of women and blacks in the fledgling United States.

"You don't get to where they were to where they're going on a featherbed, as Thomas Jefferson said," he said. "You get there through tough discussions, trial, error, mistakes, good things — and they're on that path, and I think people ought to step back and say, 'Isn't that amazing?'"

Asked if the United States would accept an Iraqi decision not to retain Ayad Allawi as prime minister, Rumsfeld said elections in Iraq were about Iraqis choosing their own leaders. "It's not a matter of accepting it or not accepting it. The Iraqis had a vote," he said.