print“The futility of establishing the rule of law in a place which has no tradition of it, notwithstanding, even if some color is given to the claim that the surge [has] ‘worked,’ it has to be clear that force is a limited weapon against a cause with unlimited recruits. It can cut back the number of insurgents by killing lots, it cannot eliminate the causes fueling the insurgency—these are, predominantly, the religious animus between Shia and Sunni that dates back to AD 680, and the American occupation. Brute force will temporarily curtail the first, but will only inflame the reaction to the last.”
That is how I summed up a September 14, 2007 column, on the week of the tiresome testimonies of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker as to the surge-related success in reducing violence in Iraq. During that week, 79 Iraqis were murdered and 38 were wounded.
Tell me if anything has changed, 3 years on. According to the AP, “Days after the U.S. officially ended combat operations and touted Iraq’s ability to defend itself, American troops found themselves battling heavily armed militants assaulting an Iraqi military headquarters in the center of Baghdad on Sunday. The fighting killed 12 people and wounded dozens.
It was the first exchange of fire involving U.S. troops in Baghdad since the Aug. 31 deadline for formally ending the combat mission, and it showed that American troops remaining in the country are still being drawn into the fighting.”
Read MORE.
Of course, now the battle is on for the spoils of occupation. Without one strongman to provide law and order in that blighted and benighted spot, many smaller, less benevolent dictators have been loosed on the long-suffering Iraqis.
UPDATE I: To Mike: Bibi Netanyahu might have waxed fat about the wonders of exporting democracy, but did he adopt this American—previously French-Jacobin—form of oppression? Not on your life. Israel pretty much sticks to defending its threatened borders.
UPDATE II: Mike, Bibi speaks a superb Hebrew too. As a matter of fact, his son recently won Israel’s prestigious National Bible Quiz for Youth. I will be pleasantly surprised if the US has an equivalent competition. You have to be very bright to win this prize. It was always big deal and we all watched it on TV as youngsters. (You’d try and shout out the answers, but could seldom keep up with the talent.)
I think Chelsea Clinton is a hard-working, smart young woman (and pretty refined). But I can’t imagine the Bush, Obama, or McCain brood doing something seriously intellectual; the kind of thing that required unadulterated brain power (a degree in math), rather than feel-goodism (speak up for gay marriage).
UPDATE III: BACK to the topic. From PBS come the stories of Iraqi refugees on the joys of Daisy-Cutter delivered democracy (and yes, neo-creeps, Iraq once had a very viable professional class):
“DR. JALAL AL BAYA, dental surgeon (through translator): I had the largest dental practice in the country. And I had to abandon it when I fled to Jordan. There were lots of threats. And most of the scientists and doctors were targeted, so we had to reach out for a safe haven that was closest. And, for us, that was Jordan.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The large family home was destroyed in a car bombing and shelling that ripped through their Baghdad neighborhood. That’s when Al Baya joined an exodus of Iraqi professionals, fleeing threats of kidnapping or just running from the wrong side of a political or religious divide. By some estimates, since 2003, at least 60 percent of Iraq’s doctors have either left or stopped practicing.”
I’ll admit that I initially fell for the idea of “exporting democracy”. The idea that democracies tend to discuss internal issues and would be far more likely to discuss and debate to work out international differences rather than immediately go to war. There were times in the 90’s when Benjamin Netanyahu spoke very eloquently of this idea and the need for an Islamic reformation much like that started by Martin Luther.
I’d like to believe that people yearn to be free. However, a civil society needs some foundation to gird it. This foundation must come from some tradition of rights and responsibilities. I know it is a worn out phrase but nature abhors a vacuum and so does political power. I believe we are leaving a vacuum of power in Iraq.
Dictators seem to be able to step into “the vacuum” as they are less encumbered by procedural niceties or care for their human subjects.
Ilana,
I think Bibi liked the theory but for Israel it is truly not a practical way to go about things. Defending the homeland for Israel is about defending the homeland not projecting power to lands far away.
I also must admit that I admire Bibi’s oratory skills in English I assume he is as articulate in Hebrew as he is in English.
Ilana,
I found the following link on MSNBC and thought you might find it interesting.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/39015584#39015584
According to the Times of London the Iranians have set up several front companies in Kabul that pay the Taliban to kill US soldiers and destroy certain pieces of equipment. I think a killed US soldier went for $1000. I guess the dialogue between the two chosen ones has been going swimmingly, eh.
It sounds like the Iraqi army was “trained” by the same incompetents who couldn’t stop Malik Hasan Nidal!
Of course you are quite right. Col. Andrew Bacevich who lost his own son in the insane fighting has made similar observations:
http://whyy.org/cms/…/2010/…/andrew-j-bacevich-how-washington-rules/
Operation Iraqi Freedom has now been replaced by Operation New Dawn.
Pathetically, NOTHING WILL EVER TEACH THE NEOCONS! They believe that had England declared war on Germany in late 1938, Hitler would have just gone “poof” – even though 5 million Brits, Frenchmen, and Poles were at war with Hitler 11 months later and Hitler did not instantly evaporate! They believe that if the US had given corruptokrat Thieu $ 50 million in 1975, his million man “Army” (and reserves) would not have completely collapsed the way they did in a 6 week North Vietnamese blitzkrieg. And if Obama had said “Klaatu Barada Nikto”, the Iranians would have overthrown the Ayatollahs. These idiot-savants are beyond the grasp of reality. Hence, the surge was an enormous success and if Iraq is ever found to be less democratic than Norway, it is merely the fault of Obama.
Moslems worldwide eagerly wish to be bombed and occupied by Americans!
“Wolfowitz Akbar!”
RE: “Update # 2” – John Quincy Adams was actually highly intelligent (David McCullough considers “Old Man Eloquent” to be our smartest President) even if his dad was a President.
RE: “Update # 3” – of these 2 million refugees – which will be 6 million in a generation… – how many will wind up become suicide bombers, etc? Even a proportion of 0.0001 comes out to 600 whack-jobs Thank you, George Dubya Bush (example of idiotic Presidential son) for the legacy that will keep on giving ad nauseum!