[FishForLunch]

Did anyone see 60 minutes yesterday. The weekly Bush bashing guest this time was Gen Anthony Zinni. He said the only good thing that happened was the superb showing of the Army taking Bagdad, following the taking of bagdad he said everything went down hill. He suggested that Rumsfield, Bremer and Wolfowitz be canned for screwing the Post War phase. He said he would have got the UN and Nato helping to solve the post war chaos as the US is not capable of such a task.

I think it is better to have elections in stages, first the peacful North, followed by the Shia South once mookie is eliminated and Iran's influence is stopped, finally followed by the Sunni Middle. I think the swiss model will better fit Iraq, Iraq was forced together by the Brits and maintained by brutal strongmen.


Swiss Model of Democracy

A THREE-TIER FEDERATION
Switzerland is small -- about one quarter the size of the US State of
Ohio -- and it is divided into 26 areas called cantons. The cantons
are comprised of approximately 3000 communes. A central or federal
government links the cantons into one unified country, but this
central government controls only those affairs which are of interest
to all the cantons. These matters of common interest include foreign
policy, national defense, federal railways and the mint. All other
issues -- education, labor, economic and welfare policies and so on --
are determined by the governments of the cantons and communes. Each
canton has its own parliament and constitution and they differ
substantially from one another. The communes, which vary in size from
a few hundred to more than a million people, also have their own
legislative and executive councils. The cantonal and communal
governments are elected by the citizens resident in their areas of
jurisdiction.

ADVANTAGES OF DECENTRALIZATION
Embraces Diversity. One important reason for this de-centralization of
power in Switzerland is that, unlike most European countries,
Switzerland is made up of several different major ethnic groups --
Germans, French, Italians, and Rhaeto-Romansch. Over the centuries,
whenever conflicts have arisen between these language groups, and
between Catholics and Protestants, the Swiss have resolved the
conflict by allowing each of the warring groups to govern themselves.
Thus single cantons have divided into half-cantons, new cantons have
been formed and border communes have opted to leave one canton to join
another. In this way the Swiss have developed a system which permits
people of different languages, cultures, religions and traditions to
live together in peace and harmony. This makes the Swiss system
particularly well suited to ethnically-divided countries.

Maximizes Competition Among Policies. Because so many decisions are
made at the local level, the Swiss are closely involved with the laws
and regulations which affect their lives -- and because each canton is
different, they are also able to see for themselves which policies
work best. For example, one canton might have high taxes and expensive
welfare programs, while another might opt for low taxes and private
charity. Each Swiss citizen can then decide which policy suits him
best and "vote with his feet" by moving to the canton which he finds
the most attractive. The result is that good policies tend to drive
out bad.