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Losing the War as Moral Imperative

Jonathan Schell argues that losing the war in Iraq is more vital to our long-term peace and stability than winning it. For one thing, as a practical matter, the Iraqi people will not allow it; no one likes an occupier. And there is the simple inherent folly: as we anti-war folks have been arguing all along, the U.S. is incapable of imposing democracy (period) and certainly not without mucking it up with our government's so far wacked out policy interests.

Yet there is an overriding moral imperative for the U.S. to "learn to lose"—the principle which the BushAdmin perversely claimed was one of its motives for invasion: Iraqi self-determination.

The cost of leaving will certainly be high, but not anywhere near as high as trying to "stay the course," which can only magnify and postpone the disaster. And yet – regrettable to say – even if this difficult step is taken, no one should imagine that democracy will be achieved by this means. The great likelihood is something else – something worse: perhaps a recrudescence of dictatorship or civil war, or both. An interim period – probably very brief – of international trusteeship is the best solution, yet it is unlikely to be a good solution. It is merely better than any other recourse.

The good options have probably passed us by. They may never have existed. If the people of Iraq are given back their country, there isn't the slightest guarantee that they will use the privilege to create a liberal democracy. The creation of democracy is an organic process that must proceed from the will of the local people. Sometimes that will is present, more often it is not. Vietnam provides an example. Vietnam today enjoys the self-determination it battled to achieve for so long; but it has not become a democracy.

On the other hand, just because Iraq's future remains to be decided by its talented people, it would also be wrong to categorically rule out the possibility that they will escape tyranny and create democratic government for themselves. The United States and other countries might even find ways of offering modest assistance in the project; it is beyond the power of the United States to create democracy for them.

The matter is not in our hands. It never was.

In other words, the Bushies fucked up. Schell details this fuck up nicely in his introduction, so go read it; it's good for you in that painful I want to scream kind of way. You may want to impeach the bastards (if you don't already) and certainly there seem to be grounds for a recall (if Cali-for-nigh-aye is any example), but reality dictates you bide your time, store articles like Schell's away as evidence or a reminder, and come November 2004, you'll know what to do.

Man, am I impatient to vote next November.

Posted by kevinmoore at September 9, 2003 08:57 AM | TrackBack