Iraqi Thinking

Fellow members of the Neo-Republican elite, my apologies for having had a slow blogging week. Unfortunately, my life does sometimes involve work that must be finished before my labour of love can be lavished with attention...

Anyway, Iraq. The fountain of organized religion, writing, culture, civilization and even government is now famous for beheading engineers and truck drivers, as succor for Islamic insurgents worldwide, and as a prism through which the larger ills of the middle east (poverty, tyranny and a general failure to adopt positively to modernity) show brightly. As much as I don't like to admit that Kerry has a point, he has a point: Iraq is a mess.

More than 130 foreigners have been abducted in recent months. Though most of them have been freed, others have been murdered, with at least 20 beheaded since July. The industry of kidnapping that has sprung up in this country has hobbled reconstruction efforts, sending waves of fear through the expatriate community and driving foreigners into the sanctuaries of fortified homes and hotels, away from the Iraqis with whom they are supposed to interact.

Mr. Zarqawi's group took responsibility in May for the beheading of Nicholas Berg, an American businessman, and a similar murder in June of Kim Sun-il, a South Korean interpreter. In both cases, the group distributed videotapes showing the decapitations. The one of Mr. Armstrong's death was similar — the victim sat bound, blindfolded and trembling in an orange jumpsuit at the feet of black-clad militants who sliced his head off after reading a diatribe against the American occupation.

I know that bloggers like Chrenkoff have found much good in the Iraq war. Bully for them. I, too, think that the Iraqis are ultiomately better off with Saddam gone from power. Yet, that argument does not require a continuing US presence in Iraq until the return of Nebuchadnezzar II (he's coming just before Jesus, btw). As Robert Kagan (and indeed, George Washington) recognized, the suffering of other people is not our problem -- unless you're the Princeton professor, Peter Singer, in which case you ought to send your surplus to anyone without such surplus, but I digress...

At the end of the day, we are in Iraq. We thought Saddam had powerful WMD that he couldn't be trusted with. We've looked and we can't find them; Saddam's out of power. Looks like mission accomplished to me. Democracy building? Good idea! Abdul, I think you take over from here.

You don't have to oppose the Iraq war or even the idea of Arab democracy to agree with th idea that we cannot fight the wars of Iraq's fathers. We cannot spill our blood to give them a sense of ownership of democracy. As harsh as it sounds, Iraq -- any country, really -- must bleed for itself in the struggle for liberty. We can help, but only to a point. Kagan states explicitly in Warrior Politics that we must learn to watch others die with equanimity. It's not pretty, and many Iraqis may hate us for destroying the rotten peace that produced stability. But, it gives them the liberty to pursue their own interests. Liberty is a great and good value, a gift that promises no salvation, just a real chance to choose one way or another one's future.

Whither Iraq? And the US?