Posted by David Bernstein:
One Perspective on Iraq:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2006_11_12-2006_11_18.shtml#1163477966
[1]Tom Smith of the Right Coast
I thought we had to go into Iraq because of WMDs and I still think
so. I thought that's what we learned from all those dangerous
documents the Pentagon put up on the web that the NY Times was
complaining about. I just thought the idea of hanging around and
building Athens on the Tigris was a lot of nonsense, inspired by
people whose training included too much political theory and not
enough political science. Just because you've read the Symposium in
Greek doesn't mean you know how to cater a big party. So yes, we
should not have de-Baathified so much, should have kept more of the
Iraqi army, should have sent in more troops, planned to get out
earlier all along, and probably let the Iraqis split up, but just
left with a little promise to the Sunni and Shiite stans that we
would be watching them, and would be back at the first sign of
uranium enrichment or thousands of mysteriously dead goats. I put a
lot of this down to an unwillingness to act like the hegemon we
are. If some benighted dictatorship in the armpit of the world is
working on a nasty surprize for us, we shouldn't have to promise
that life will be wonderful for them after we finish blowing up
their army and bioweapons seminar rooms. What's wrong with, it
sucks to be the enemy of America? Nobody expects the French to make
Africa better; we could learn something from them, as much as I
hate to admit it. I personally thought the whole nation building
idea sounded stupid, suspected it would fail, and still thought we
should have invaded, and I'm glad we did. We are safer for it, not
counting whatever stupidity we plan for the future. If failure to
acheive the impossible in Iraq turns into a reason for propping up
those whirling dervishes in Iran, that will really be the worst
combination of farce, tragedy and disaster.
I've learned at least two things from the Iraq War: (1) Even I, who
rarely underestimate the incompetence of the government, can
underestimate the incompetence of the government; and (2) the U.S. is
not cut out to be an imperial power, neither the public nor the elites
have any stomach for the inevitable dirty work that goes along with
exercising such power.
References
Visible links
1. http://rightcoast.typepad.com/rightcoast/2006/11/its_not_too_ear.html
Hidden links:
2. file://localhost/var/www/powerblogs/volokh/posts/1163477966.html
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