CPTnet
June 19, 2003
IRAQ REFLECTION: Simple solutions? Or, getting an elephant through the eye
of a needle?

by Peggy Gish

Driving across Baghdad in the sweltering June heat, our taxi driver told us
"I am
seeking solutions to our country's problems." We slowly wove our way through
traffic snarls, at times taking fifteen to twenty minutes to get through a
busy intersection. Since the war, few drivers obey the traffic rules or
lights on the streets.

Our translator picked up on the theme of solving problems, and wanting to
bring some "lightness" to our traffic dilemma, began to tell a series of
riddles. "What are the three easy steps to take to get an elephant into a
refrigerator?" he asked. After all our guesses failed, he gave us the
answer: "1. Open the door. 2. Push the elephant in. And 3. close the
door!"

"Easy?" we asked.

As the car inched forward again, I began to see a correlation between cars
and buses coming at each other from all directions, each unwilling, and
often unable, to move so the others could go through, and the tangled mess
of the Iraqi society since the war. Here, the war resulted in massive
economic, political and health crises, and with the lifting of the former
regime came a lifting of restraints on lawlessness, bringing much of the
society to a standstill. Iraqis find it hard to work their way through the
chaos to take care of their families' needs.

And, taking it further, isn't there some similarity to this and the wider
deadlocks in other international situations?

After pondering a moment, I decided to share my thoughts aloud: The
solution may seem impossible at times, but it is actually quite simple.
Simple, but not easy, because the rich and powerful countries don't have
the will to do it. Take two sticky international problems, Iraq and the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as examples. The crux of their problems began
with rich and powerful nations and corporations desiring and conquering
their land and resources. Foreign policies with Iraq and many other nations
included putting in power and propping up a local dictator who carried out
his own oppressive agendas on his people.

The way to start solving these
problems is not to focus just on the symptoms, but to change completely
this type of grasping foreign policy and pursue policies that establish
justice with and within those countries.

Simple? Yes, it would make a huge difference. But it will not be easy to
change the will of the rich and the powerful. It may be like trying to force
the elephant to go into the refrigerator, or "through the eye of a needle,"
as someone said years ago. (And by the way, using the symbol of a well-known
U.S. political party was not my original intention.)