Now the US is all but legally at war with Iraq. The president gave his enthusiastic 10 minutes of his favorite stump lines of the past eighteen months. With what aimed to be a grave demeanor, but looked like confusion as usual, Bush put an end to the diplomatic charade so he could get on with opening up a can of whoop-ass on Iraq and everyone else that decides to breathe near us the wrong way.
Iraqi military officers were warned not to fight. They were warned that there will be war crimes trials. They were warned that “I was only following orders” will not be a valid excuse. The cheese was thick and moldy.
Saddam and “his sons” have 48 hours to escape Iraq. We couldn’t help but think that, since everything else about our foreign policy comes out of Tom Clancy novels, that the “48 hour ultimatum” was bunk and the bombs fell on Iraq as he spoke.
Unlike the overwhelming majority of the leftist crowd, we’re not against the concept of using military force for a better tomorrow. In this case, democracy in the Middle East. A democratic Iraq would cause major havoc for the authoritarian oil regimes. A democratic Iraq would bring agency and justice to a region that knows only kings, princes, generals and despair.
If every country in Latin America (except Cuba) can find democracy and prosper then it’s a safe conjecture that democracy in the Middle East can produce the same results.
Unfortunately for the Bush Administration, nothing—not logic, history or public sentiment—is on their side.
The nations of Latin America found democracy despite the US, not because of the US. End of that story.
Germany and Japan became democracies because of great men in the US government that believed in the value of democracy and were sincere in their cause. Truman’s men didn’t change their focus according to public opinion. They didn’t progressively move from disarmament to regime change to democracy. From the moment that war ceased, the aim of the Marshall plan was to install democratic institutions.
And it didn’t hurt that both countries were vanquished enemies turned willing participants with some previous experience as capitalists. There haven’t been any other successful U.S. attempts at growing democracy from the barrel of a gun before or since.
Bush is not Truman nor will he ever be. Bush and Co. was planning to resume
fighting in Iraq even before they took office. Terrorism in Iraq is a contrived excuse on the same level as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that triggered the Vietnam War. Bush doesn’t seem to have the patience that it will take to create democracy in Iraq.
Given Bush’s inept handling of this entire charade, we think that Democracy isn’t a credible justification for war. Neither are regime change nor mere disarmament. The goals of disarmament, regime change and democracy are very, very different goals that require different levels of involvement and force.
On the eve of war, Bush still hasn’t figured out the difference. That’s not a good way to build a lasting peace in Iraq.
