Let's Not Go Back to Cynical RealPolitic
by Bob Clasen
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Two former White House national security advisers, Republican Brent Scowcroft and Democrat Zbigniew Brzezinski are leading the nay sayers in arguing that Iraq is now hopeless and that we need to cut our losses and withdraw, inviting Europe or the UN to come in and take our place (a very unlikely happening). Realistically, such a withdrawal would abandon Iraq to the forces of chaos and fascism. These same advisors argue that we should essentially abandon Israel and go back to "dealing" with the terrorists, entering into treaties at the expense of Israeli security by forcing Israel to tear down the security fence, withdraw from the West Bank, etc.
I prefer an idealistic foreign policy that stands up for the values we as a country stand for: freedoma and democracy. We need to stand with the people of Iraq through their first election so long as they are willing to fight with us. We need to stand with our historic ally, democratic Israel, against the cynical Western Europeans who are our nominal allies and certainly against Islamic totalitarian dictatorships. The solution to the problem of fundamentalist Islam is a counterbalancing movement of modern, democratic liberal Islam. (Two other solutions are unacceptable: war and surrender).
A certain degree of "civil war" between the former Baathists and terrorists and the people attempting to set up a democracy is inevitable. To pospone the elections at this point would be to reward the fascists for their terrorist campaign.
Iraq is a chaotic mixture of three cultures with no history of representative government. Holding an election is a revolutionary act, but it is an idealistic and noble goal worth fighting for. To surrender to the forces of cynicsm, to return to the philosophy of pragmatic "realpolitic" at the expense of democracy and freedom is not worthy of all the soldiers who have died trying to help Iraq. When the Shiites win, as expected, the key issue will be whether they are willing to treat the minority Kurds and Sunnis with respect and tolerance so as to forge a civil society of multiple minorities. Time will tell, but we need to give them the chance to try.
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Two former White House national security advisers, Republican Brent Scowcroft and Democrat Zbigniew Brzezinski are leading the nay sayers in arguing that Iraq is now hopeless and that we need to cut our losses and withdraw, inviting Europe or the UN to come in and take our place (a very unlikely happening). Realistically, such a withdrawal would abandon Iraq to the forces of chaos and fascism. These same advisors argue that we should essentially abandon Israel and go back to "dealing" with the terrorists, entering into treaties at the expense of Israeli security by forcing Israel to tear down the security fence, withdraw from the West Bank, etc.
I prefer an idealistic foreign policy that stands up for the values we as a country stand for: freedoma and democracy. We need to stand with the people of Iraq through their first election so long as they are willing to fight with us. We need to stand with our historic ally, democratic Israel, against the cynical Western Europeans who are our nominal allies and certainly against Islamic totalitarian dictatorships. The solution to the problem of fundamentalist Islam is a counterbalancing movement of modern, democratic liberal Islam. (Two other solutions are unacceptable: war and surrender).
A certain degree of "civil war" between the former Baathists and terrorists and the people attempting to set up a democracy is inevitable. To pospone the elections at this point would be to reward the fascists for their terrorist campaign.
Iraq is a chaotic mixture of three cultures with no history of representative government. Holding an election is a revolutionary act, but it is an idealistic and noble goal worth fighting for. To surrender to the forces of cynicsm, to return to the philosophy of pragmatic "realpolitic" at the expense of democracy and freedom is not worthy of all the soldiers who have died trying to help Iraq. When the Shiites win, as expected, the key issue will be whether they are willing to treat the minority Kurds and Sunnis with respect and tolerance so as to forge a civil society of multiple minorities. Time will tell, but we need to give them the chance to try.
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Comments
Generally I agree with you comments that we should give the election a chance to start something like self-rule in Iraq. However, weeks ago I asked you, "What would be a success in Iraq? and what would be failure on the part of the US?
The reason I ask is because I believe this administration went into Iraq for the wrong reasons. For political CYA, the administration has been making up its strategy on the fly ever since Bagdad fell. But what is the end game.
Is the US policy to remain in Iraq until we get a government we find acceptable to our western notions of democracy? If the situtation degenerates into total civil war, should we withdraw and admit we didn't have a plan?
Or, more cynically, do we just stay indefinately because that puts 150,000 US soldiers on the border of Syria, Lebannon, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey. Is this an end in itself? (Not that anyone voted for this)!
The one point we humanitarians seem to forget, we pick an choose our efforts. Why aren't we in the Sudan? Guess we don't care that much.
On the extremes, it is not that hard to describe success and failure. Success would be a functioning democratic Iraq, preferably in a secular state not run by the mullahs and with good relations with the U.S. Failure would be the collapse of our democratic government in Iraq with the ultimate rise of someone as bad as Saddam Hussein in charge or some kind of perpetual chaos. Of course, there are many intermediate gray points.
Once there is an elected government, we will stay as long as they ask us to help and cooperate with us. If they ask us to leave after the elections, I suppose we should go. But I suspect they realize they will need our help for a time.
Of course, a democratic Iraq may not always be helpful, just as France, Germany and Sweden to not always agree with us.