There will be no victory or defeat for the United States in Iraq. These terms do not reflect the reality of what is going to happen there. The future of Iraq was always going to be determined by the Iraqis -- not the Americans.
Iraq is not a prize to be won or lost. It is part of the ongoing global struggle against instability, brutality, intolerance, extremism and terrorism. There will be no military victory or military solution for Iraq. Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger made this point last weekend.
The time for more U.S. troops in Iraq has passed. We do not have more troops to send and, even if we did, they would not bring a resolution to Iraq. Militaries are built to fight and win wars, not bind together failing nations. We are once again learning a very hard lesson in foreign affairs: America cannot impose a democracy on any nation -- regardless of our noble purpose.
We have misunderstood, misread, misplanned and mismanaged our honorable intentions in Iraq with an arrogant self-delusion reminiscent of Vietnam. Honorable intentions are not policies and plans. Iraq belongs to the 25 million Iraqis who live there. They will decide their fate and form of government.
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merica finds itself in a dangerous and isolated position in the world. We are perceived as a nation at war with Muslims. Unfortunately, that perception is gaining credibility in the Muslim world and for many years will complicate America's global credibility, purpose and leadership. This debilitating and dangerous perception must be reversed as the world seeks a new geopolitical, trade and economic center that will accommodate the interests of billions of people over the next 25 years. The world will continue to require realistic, clear-headed American leadership -- not an American divine mission.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Chuck Hagel - on leaving Iraq and trying to save face
With no victory or defeat
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2 comments:
Well, I believe that we are now well and truly fucked in Iraq. I have resisted the calls for a pullout because of what I thought would follow, knowing that we would be responsible for whatever came. Well, now I am getting to the point where I cannot even think of a way to begin to improve the situation, let alone solve it. I think now that the situation is well on its way to total chaos whether we are there or not.
The thing that makes me angry though is all of this talk about "the Iraqis will have to work it out for themselves." That is nothing but a lot of self-serving horseshit. The fact of the matter is that they had a functioning (highly oppressive to be sure but nevertheless functioning) government and society before we came on the scene.
The first thing that we did was blow all of their physical infrastructur to hell with the "Shock and Awe" that our media played to the utmost with total onanistic delight. Then when we had taken over the country, we eliminated all of their civil servants from eligibility for civil service. We eliminated all of their soldiers frow eligibility for military service. We dismantled their nationalized industries in our endless worship of the market and replaced them with ... nothing. Then we stirred up ethnic and religious tensions and raised the expectations of every group in the country to levels that could not possibly be met.
There may be nothing more that we can do to improve the situation, but let us not fool ourselves. The Iraqis did not create this problem.
We did.
And we are responsible for all that follows. All of it.
May God forgive us.
The Iraqis certainly won't.
I totally agree. There is a similar meme out there that not only the Iraqis need to work this out, but it is in fact there fault.
Demonstrating his total departure from reality Krauthammer wrote,
"Our discourse on Iraq has followed the same pattern. Where did we go wrong? Too few troops? Too arrogant an occupation? Or too soft? Take your pick.
I have my own theories. In retrospect, I think we made several serious mistakes -- not shooting looters, not installing an Iraqi exile government right away, and not taking out Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army in its infancy in 2004 -- that greatly compromised the occupation. Nonetheless, the root problem lies with Iraqis and their political culture."
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