May 6, 2006

IN CASE YOU STILL DON'T GET WHY WE LET MOOKIE LIVE:

Civil war: the only way to bring peace to Iraq (Edward Luttwak, 07/05/2006, Sunday Telegraph)

Civil wars can be especially atrocious as neighbours kill each other at close range, but they have a purpose - they can bring lasting peace by destroying the will to fight, and by removing the motives and opportunities for further violence.

England's civil war in the mid-17th century assured the country's political stability under parliament and a limited monarchy throughout the subsequent centuries. But first there had to be a war with many bloody battles and casualties on the side, including the execution of Charles I, who had claimed absolute power by divine right.

The United States had its own civil war two centuries later, which established the rule that states cannot leave the union alone, abolishing slavery in the process. The destruction was vast, and the casualties immense, given the size of the population at that time. But without the decisive victory of the Union, two separate and quarrelsome republics, periodically at war with each other, might still endure.

Now it is the turn of Iraq...


The sad reality is that the Sunni had to be beaten into submission--both military and electorally--after several decades of Saddam telling them they were the majority and fourteen centuries of lording it over the Shi'a.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 6, 2006 9:44 PM
Comments

I can't speak for the administration, but the surprise for me post-war - i.e. afte the Iraqi military collapsed -- was the stupidty of the Sunni in refusing just to give up.

Think of how much easier it would have gone for them, and for us, if they had basically just sued for peace with the US, asking us to help establish a radically federalist system in which they would have kept some power over their own regions, and gotten some part of the oil money, and protection from the Shia.

Instead . . .

Posted by: Jim in Chicago at May 6, 2006 9:59 PM

They genuinely believed that they were the majority and were entitled to continue to dominate Iraq even by our standards.

Posted by: oj at May 6, 2006 10:12 PM

Yeah, I know.

Posted by: Jim in Chicago at May 6, 2006 10:17 PM

> They genuinely believed that they were the majority and were entitled to continue to dominate

So they're, like, Iraqi Democrats?

Explains a lot.

Posted by: Bob Hawkins at May 6, 2006 10:22 PM

Which shows another flaw of the pacifist, the inability to look beyond the present. Peace Now! may seem like it should always be a good, but has he points out, it may not lead to Peace Forever!

(I wish he'd included an example of a civil war aborted by outside pressures that just made things worse in the long run.)

Posted by: Raoul Ortega at May 6, 2006 10:48 PM

Well, it's not by outside force, but the US civil war was avoided on at least three occassions. It was put off until it could become the first modern war, now with total mobilization.

Posted by: David Cohen at May 6, 2006 11:01 PM

War does answer some questions. It is not an unalloyed evil. Ask Signor Mussolini. If you have an Ouija Board handy.

Posted by: Mikey at May 7, 2006 12:18 AM

The Sunni need to hire a shrewd modern Western leftist to advise them. The instant they declare themselves to be a minority we'll be flooded with "Save the Sunni" bumper stickers and in-depth MSM reports on the outrageous oppression inflicted on them by the Shia.

Posted by: Peter B at May 7, 2006 5:08 AM

The Palestinians are another group still in desperate need of a civil war.

Posted by: morry at May 7, 2006 10:32 AM
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