Officials, Iraqis Work Toward Democracy

D I W A N I Y E H, Iraq, Feb. 26 -- If the United States could get the Iraqis to understand democracy, it would change everything.

That's the challenge facing several hundred U.S. officials who are fanning out across Iraq to help the Iraqis create town councils. The effort is part of President Bush's promise to implement democracy after decades of dictatorship under Saddam Hussein.

In Baghdad, democracy looks within reach. The city is modern, sophisticated. Women have a voice. People are nuts about education. The notion of a free, competitive press took hold the instant the United States unshackled the media.

You see a desire to catch up with everything Iraq missed out on under Saddam: consumer goods, the Internet — kids are whiling away hours in chat rooms in Internet cafés.

But Baghdad is not Iraq, as Iraqis themselves often say. Get out of the capital and then ask how long it will take to create a democracy, because beyond the city limits, it's not the same country.

Drive south from Baghdad and the changes start immediately. This region is poor and traditional and, for miles, simply empty. The roads are dangerous and unprotected. In most directions, it's just desert and sky.

In a place where Iraqis list many other needs — like sanitation, jobs and security — before the right to vote, the biggest obstacle may be that people have no clear idea of what democracy is or why they should want it.

But the Bush administration wants it in place quickly. The American democracy trainers sent to the Iraqi hinterlands hope to show the people what democracy is and that it is for their own good.

A Tough Mission

The team has been given only until June 30 to complete a mission some say needs years. And the squad of seven sent to Diwaniyeh, a city 100 miles south of Baghdad, often find their talents and skills being stretched in areas where some, at least, had never worked before.