At a party the other day a kind and well-meaning friend of mine argued strongly that since we destroyed Iraq we need to stay to fix it. The wrong we have done the Iraqis should be paid for by making it right, he said, not just leaving them high and dry. This is a very common and genuinely compassionate position, but political reality and the American psyche make it impossible.
First of all the so-called Pottery Barn, “you broke it you bought it” rule is pretty childish. It’s OK if you’re talking about knickknacks that a vendor has arrayed for you to browse. If you bump one off the shelf accidentally you should probably pay for it. But not when we’re talking about nations. The Iraqis don’t want us to “buy” their country, and we didn’t “break” it by accident. Remember Shock and Awe? The neo-cons would like nothing more than to own Iraq and all that lovely oil. If you want a playground analogy this affair was more like the greedy kid who licks the whole bowl of jell-o so no one else will want it.
Second, regardless of our good-intentions what makes us think we are capable of fixing Iraq at all? Every indication is that our actions are making things worse. It’s like a well-meaning but rather dim-witted relative crashes your car. Lacking insurance, he promises that he’ll fix it for you. Do you stand idly by for month after month as he bumbles around, smashing and cutting things that weren’t even broken in his vain attempt at repair? Of course not. You’d ask him to pay for the repairs and then you’d take the car to a mechanic. While our military is exceptionally good at wrecking things and defeating standing armies, I think it’s fair to say that at counterinsurgency operations and nationbuilding they are poor at best. But where are we going to find professionals in those fields?
Allow me to present your United Nations.
This organization (for which we already pay membership dues) is chock full of some of the best and brightest experts in the world who have dedicated their lives to these very issues. They also have almost by definition some of the most experienced veterans in diplomacy and international relations. Except for the odd John Bolton here and there, they are committed to solving common problems through negotiation and the proper application of practical problem-solving techniques and empirical, scientific knowledge. In other words, the exact opposite of our current civilian military leadership.
We should leave and put the U.N. in charge. Or, more practically, give the coalition and Iraqi forces the blue U.N. helmets and task them with the U.N. mission. This could be done immediately to instant benefits. First and foremost it would legitimize the occupation. The regional players would have a say in the future of Iraq rather than just the suspect motives of the Bush administration. It would allow other nations to participate as partners, and relief troops would soon arrive in real numbers. There would be transparency and accountability; no more billions down the Haliburton hole. And finally we’d have all those experts working on the problem – professionals actually competent in the kinds of tasks that will be essential for this to succeed.
We’d pay for it of course. We’d have to authorize the billions we were going to waste anyway and give the U.N. the discretion to spend it. Certainly we’d want oversight, but to be a true international effort – the only way this could work – the money would be under international control. The other cost, of course, would be American pride. We’d have to admit to the world and to ourselves that we aren’t invincible. We can’t do everything on our own. It’s not just the stubbornness of George Bush that makes this option literally unthinkable, but the myth of American exceptionalism.
When people say there are no good solutions, they really mean that there are no solutions where America comes out on top. It is assumed that a good outcome will leave us feeling good, not the more practical sense that leaves the world as a whole better off. The political consequence is that precipitous withdrawal is the only conceivable solution. We should do it now rather than sending good soldiers to their deaths in the hopes of redeeming those who have already died.
- jack*
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