May 31, 2004
WHO THAT DOESN'T RESPECT US IS WORTH HAVING THE RESPECT OF?:
America's battle to regain respect (Lawrence Freedman, May 30 2004, Financial Times)
We have reached a turning-point in international politics as well as in Iraq. President George W. Bush is widely seen to have gambled on Iraq and lost. The impact of that loss goes well beyond Iraq. The US has not been defeated in battle and is unlikely to be so but it can no longer impose its will on Iraq because it lacks the moral authority to do so.
AdvertisementThe "resistance" in any of its many guises is too divided to win and half- decent outcomes may yet emerge. The point is only that the future of Iraq increasingly depends on the variable quality of local leaders in the country, their ability to understand the consequences of allowing violence to become the first arbiter of their differences, the role that the United Nations chooses to play in helping to secure a transition from coalition occupation - and the readiness of the Americans to accept that they have lost the initiative. If he is to have any chance of success, Ayad Allawi, would-be prime minister, will need to demonstrate his distance from the coalition.
This was not inevitable.
We could have a contest just to see which assertion in this essay is the silliest:
(1) The attempt to make Iraq a democracy didn't inevitably have to end with Iraqis choosing their own leaders.
(2) The attempt didn't inevitably have to lead to resistance by Ba'athists and al Qaeda.
(3) The attempt didn't inevitably have to lead to opposition from Europe and the American Left.
(4) The attempt didn't inevitably have to lead to greater hatred of Israel.
(5) North Korea and Iran would not have eventually had to be dealt with.
Posted by Orrin Judd at May 31, 2004 11:20 PMThe sad part is that even some on the right think this is a thoughtful column as far as I can tell from noodling around the internet.
I'd add that the idea that it's already a failure but still could end well is pretty silly too.
JAB:
Without having read any of them, it seems to be that the complaint of most conservatives stems from their lack of realism about the war in the first place. If only we'd handled it better the Euros would have been with us...the Ba'athists crushed...a Swiss republic possible...blah, blah, blah.
Posted by: oj at June 1, 2004 12:07 AMWishful thinking is non-partisan.
True,we all crave the easy answer. We all know where the other guy went wrong and what should have been done.
(One feels like singing "Where have all the adults gone?")
P.S. Oliver Kamm has a terrific post on John Updike.
I feel like a country bumpkin or someone from another planet. I simply don't understand how so many have suddenly decided such a resounding success was a miserable failure. The left can we take for granted, but what was the ideal that was fueling the others?
Posted by: Peter B at June 1, 2004 6:30 AMBarry:
Why do you believe such people wish things had been easier? It certainly seems as if they wish for failure.
Posted by: oj at June 1, 2004 7:19 AMPeter:
That the Shi'ites would greet us with such joy that they'd volunteer to serve as a free oil supply and military base in perpetuity. The wogs are supposed to be pliant.
Posted by: oj at June 1, 2004 7:54 AMOrrin:
I guess. And with culturally sensitized prison guards organizing singing contests and communications workshops and handing out daily tuck.
Posted by: Peter B at June 1, 2004 8:09 AMPeter:
One notes with some amusement the spate of stories from the Left which makes the point that we treat criminals in American jails the same way we do Iraqi prisoners.
Posted by: oj at June 1, 2004 8:15 AM