Kent Conrad: “But I do believe we have a responsibility to bring stability and to give the Iraqi people a chance to make judgments…”

“But I do believe we have a responsibility to bring stability and to give the Iraqi people a chance to make judgments about their own future. That, fundamentally, is what democracy is all about. It is not about America picking the leaders for Iraq. I must say, last week I was taken aback to read Mr. Bremer and others talking about how we are going to pick Iraq's new leaders. Think about that. How we are going to decide who Iraq's leaders are going to be? That is not democracy. That is not the role of America. Our job is not to pick Iraq's leaders. How arrogant is that, to say we can go into a country and designate the leaders and think that those people would have any credibility among their own people? If you want to set up a group for failure, have them chosen by the United States. And for us to tell the Iraqi people, these are your leaders, what does that have to do with democracy? Those are not the values of America. We would not permit for one moment another person to choose our leaders. What business do we think we have choosing theirs? I think the obligation we have is to help Iraq pick their own leaders and have a society where there is sufficient security for them to make those decisions and for them to be able to rebuild an economy that has been shattered by decades of despotic rule by Saddam Hussein, and now by this war. This is an important moment in history for our country.”