While the U.S.-led initiative in Iraq seems to be moving closer to the discovery of Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction with each arrest of his henchmen, the Shiite demand for theocratic governance presents an alternative equally grim to that posed by Saddam. If this country’s effort to establish a government in Iraq that will ultimately free the Middle East from its medieval myopia is to succeed, then there is an immediate need to identify a moral imperative that, when endorsed by a preponderance of Western democracies, will withstand the demands of the Shiite self-flagellators and clerics.

The issue of the treatment of women will provide the Western alliance with such a predicate imperative. The low esteem with which radical Islam regards women is well known and publicized throughout the world’s functioning democracies. All that needs be done is to raise the banner of suffrage and insist that no government will be installed or legitimized in Iraq that does not recognize the rights of women.

Phil Tobin

Ellsworth