"...hoped for better leaders and times..."
Quite apart from the spurious notion that we (the executive branch of government) have found papers which justify our dangerous policies (Oh Wow Mr. Vice-President, Lookee What We've Found Here!), there will always be those who say we'll always have war because we always have war!
But we don't point out what we do to make sure there IS always war -- by starting them, by basing such a huge part of our economic well-being on military action, and by being Dicks.
I just heard this guy being interviewed on "Morning Edition" (NPR) and he made the most sense I've heard since we started discussing Iraq. Here's his book -- published by Columbia University Press:
Quote:Inventing Iraq
The Failure of Nation-Building and a History Denied
Toby Dodge
"Most interesting and original, from the point of view of theoretical vigour and empirical richness. Dodge argues against 'transhistorical' or essentialist views of late colonialism and also shows, very convincingly, the mutlifaceted nature of colonial practice and the often widely divergent views of colonial officials...well written...an exceptionally interesting piece of work. )"
-Peter Sluglett, University of Utah
"A very good piece of work in every respect: extensive research, familiarity and mastery of the secondary literature, well organised and lucid, conceptually sophisticated, with theoretical themes woven into the fabric of the substantive analysis."
-Sami Zubeida, Birkbeck College, University of London
"If we think there is a fast solution to changing the governance of Iraq," warned U.S. Marine General Anthony Zinni in the months before the United States and Britain invaded Iraq, "then we don't understand history." Never has the old line about those who fail to understand the past being condemned to repeat it seemed more urgently relevant than in Iraq today, with potentially catastrophic consequences for the Iraqi people, the Middle East region, and the world. Examining the construction of the modern state of Iraq under the auspices of the British empire -the first attempt by a Western power to remake Mesopotamia in its own image -renowned Iraq expert Toby Dodge uncovers a series of shocking parallels between the policies of a declining British empire and those of the current American administration.
Between 1920 and 1932, Britain endeavored unsuccessfully to create a modern democratic state from three former provinces of the Ottoman Empire, which it had conquered and occupied during the First World War. Caught between the conflicting imperatives of controlling a region of great strategic importance (Iraq straddled the land and air route between British India and the Mediterranean) and reconstituting international order through the liberal ideal of modern state sovereignty under the League of Nations Mandate system, British administrators undertook an extremely difficult task. To compound matters, they did so without the benefit of detailed information about the people and society they sought to remake. Blinded by potent cultural stereotypes and subject to mounting pressures from home, these administrators found themselves increasingly dependent on a mediating class of shaikhs to whom they transferred considerable power and on whom they relied for the maintenance of order. When order broke down, as it routinely did, the British turned to the airplane. (This was Winston Churchill´s lasting contribution to the British enterprise in Iraq: the concerted use of air power -of what would in a later context be called "shock and awe" -to terrorize and subdue dissident factions of the Iraqi people.)
Ultimately, Dodge shows, the state the British created held all the seeds of a violent, corrupt, and relentlessly oppressive future for the Iraqi people, one that has continued to unfold. Like the British empire eight decades before, the United States and Britain have taken upon themselves today the grand task of transforming Iraq and, by extension, the political landscape of the Middle East. Dodge contends that this effort can succeed only with a combination of experienced local knowledge, significant deployment of financial and human resources, and resolute staying power. Already, he suggests, ominous signs point to a repetition of the sequence of events that led to the long nightmare of Saddam Hussein´s murderous tyranny.
Contents
Preface. Iraq and the Ordering of the Postcolonial World
Understanding the Mandate in Iraq
The Mandate System, the End of Imperialism, and the Birth of the Iraqi State
Corruption, Fragmentation, and Despotism: British Visions of Ottoman Iraq
Rural and Urban: The Divided Social Imagination of Late Colonialism
Using the Shaikhs: The Rational Imposition of a Romantic Figure
The Social Meaning of Land: State, Shaikh, and Peasant
The Imposition of Order: Social Perception and the "Despotic" Power of Airplanes
About the Author
Toby Dodge is a senior research fellow at the ESRC Centre for the Study of Globalisation at the University of Warwick, England, and an associate fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London. He has acted as a consultant on Iraq for ABC News and has written for the Guardian. He is coeditor, with Stephen Simon, of Iraq at the Crossroads: State and Society in the Shadow of Regime Change and, with Richard Higgott, of Globalisation and the Middle East: Islam, Economics, Society, and Politics.
blatham wrote:What is this 'spine' thing? It keeps popping up in American nationalist rhetoric, all proud of itself, like an adolescent boner, and with an identical lack of brain.
"Resolute", the same. As if the word meant something self-evidently good. Never mind that a tatooed biker heading towards his wife to beat her with a motorcylce chain is 'resolved'.
and then Geli wrote:Well, since the magic number of kids that die in trumped up wars is around 58,000 .... do you think we should go for 60,000 and raise the bar for the next generation ...... if there is a next generation
Uh oh...you guys did it now...
As soon as he wakes up, you're going to be in for a strong dose of sanctimonious steeple-fingered pontificating...
"...a strong dose of sanctimonious steeple-fingered pontificating..."
BINGO!
Save him some money on prunes
Walter, thanks for the article from The Transcript. I continue to believe that Bush bought into this view big-time.
What do you think about it?
The internal inconsistencies in Feith's speech (no proof of WMD's BUT Saddam posed "serious threat") blend into a "but he was a brutal dictator and therefore it was okay" reminds me, for some reason, of SAT's in which one was given paragraphs of this kind and asked to play true/false. Either SAT's have changed and Americans no longer have to examine documents for inconsistencies, or we have an awful lot of SAT flunkers in this thread.
Well, Kara, that might truely be so.
Although, I've never noticed before, how true this old German (rural) saying is: "rin in die Kartoffel, raus aus die Kartoffeln" (literally: 'in the potatoes, out of the potatoes' = it's 'do this' one minute and 'do that' the next // first it's one thing, then it's another ).
"A Second Chance"
An Essay by President George W. Bush
Over the course of my life, I have often benefitted from the friendship of others (see "On Friendship"). It is through my friends and the friends of my father that I came to acquire the Texas Rangers, it is through my friends and the friends of my father that I was able to acquire my first oil company, it is through my friends and the friends of my father that I was able to run for Congress, and it is through my friends and the friends of my father that I became Governor of Texas.
Finally, it is through my brother, my friends and the friends of my father that I became President of the United States.
But besides high-profile friendship, my career has been marked by another, less cheerful pattern: a lack of second chances.
When my oil company couldn't find any oil in Texas, through no fault of my own, it went bankrupt just after I sold all my stock. I was never given another chance to own an oil company.
When I lost my race for Congress, I was never offered another chance to run such a race--even though I had lost through no fault of my own, elections being so often the "wild cards" of our politics.
When I went AWOL from the Texas National Guard, no one ever offered me another chance to earn an honorable discharge.
When, as Governor of Texas, I was asked to change pollution laws for power and oil companies and did just that, I accidentally made Texas the most polluted state in the Union, and Houston the most polluted city in America. Yet no one ever offered me a second chance to achieve an honorable record in Texas.
When, as Governor of Texas, I was asked to cut taxes too much and did so, I accidentally bankrupted the Texas government. Yet no one ever offered me a second chance to achieve an honorable record in Texas.
Today, as President of the United States, I of course have done some marvelous things. I have already set the all-time record for most campaign fund-raising trips of any President in US history. I kept the US out of the international spotlight by withdrawing from the World Court. I avoided media insanity quite well, with fewer televised press conferences than any other President since the advent of television.
But I know, too, that my record hasn't been perfect. Leaving aside my accomplishments for the moment, I'd like to eat some humble pie:
* Three million of you have lost your jobs over the past three years. That is bad - worse than at any other time since the Great Depression, when Herbert Hoover was President. I know this.
* 1.7 million of you dropped below the poverty line this past year. That is bad, because 1.7 million is the population of Philadelphia, the "city of brotherly love." Imagine all of Philadelphia falling off the shelf of prosperity, all at once. Believe me, I know.
* For those of you in the middle classes, incomes have gone down, after rising throughout the 1990s. I know.
* My tax cuts have turned your budget surplus into a $480 billion deficit. I know there are many things you could have used the surplus for, and I know it will cause your children some stress later on. I know this.
* It was during my tenure that more private bankruptcies were filed in twelve months than ever before. I know.
* It was during my tenure that the stock market dropped more than ever before in history. I know.
* I accidentally appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any other President in US history. I'm living with that legacy, like all of us are.
* I also accidentally appointed more multi-millionaires to my cabinet than any other President in US history. My cabinet is by far the richest of any in US history. This was a tactless move, I know - I know.
* Your country's security is a mess. Even my generals in the field, even my Homeland Security apparatus, even Rumsfeld is telling me that now, the American people face a great deal more of a threat than before my War on Terror began. I know that too.
* After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, I presided over the worst security failure in US history. I remember that well, even today.
* Your country's diplomacy is in tatters. After September 11, we received an outpouring of heartfelt sympathy from our allies and enemies alike. We had an opportunity to build on that sympathy. Today, none of our allies trusts us one bit, and not only because we found no weapons of mass destruction. I know how this hurts some of you. Believe me, I know.
* I dissolved more international treaties than any other President in US history. I know that this hasn't helped our diplomacy either.
* More people have taken to the streets to protest me and my actions (around 15 million worldwide on February 15 alone) than ever before in the history of humanity. I know these figures quite well.
* Because of my actions, the United Nations removed the US from its human rights commission and its elections monitoring board. I know that!
Now all this is not good, I know. But I'm asking you for a second chance. If you grant it to me, it will be a first for my lifetime, and I will forever be grateful.
As an American, I think you can understand the importance of second chances. If you've lost your job during my tenure, surely you'll want some corporation, somewhere on earth, to give you another job someday, and not say "Oh, no, you messed up for good. You can't ever work again."
Since there's a good chance you can relate to this scenario, I feel I can ask you, as a friend: please, give me a second four-year term. Give me that second chance--for once in my life.
Thank you.
- George W. Bush
I do read your posts Timber, but I do wonder why when I read this(directed at Geli)
Quote:While that does not perforce make you wrong, or invalidate your opinion or the opinions of those with whom you align, and whose opinions, conjectures and assertions you quote at length and with great frequency, neither does it validate anything other than that you are enthusiastic in your endorsement of that opinion set.
and
An opinion is neither right nor wrong regardless by whom, by how many, nor how loquatiously that opinion may be presented. What validates an opinion is that it proves congruent with established fact as determined by objective, comprehensive assessment of multiply independently observed and recognized condition. What is established fact at present is that there is contentious debate regarding current and recent US conduct of foreign policy. What remains to be established is the efficacy or lack thereof of that policy, both in terms relative to strictly US interest and broader global concerns. All else in the matter as yet is conjecture and opinion. That's my opinion, anyway, and it applies equally to my opinion of The Iraq Matter and to your opinion of The Iraq Matter.
And in my opinion you could save us a lot of reading time and mental effort if you could get across your opinion in fewer words.
Kara, I used the term American Imperialism, because otherwise I'm at a loss to explain the actions of the American government. I never bought into WMD. I did once believe that some good would stem from a war of liberation. But now I think that too was just another layer of attractive packaging for something fundamentally ugly.
I'm more of an oatmeal guy ... never did like prunes, though I'm fond of plums.
Now, on to steepling fingers and pontificating. A comment from Tart, though made in derision, was cogent: " .... we'll always have war because we'll always have war". Yup, you got it.
"In order to preserve peace, we must prepare for war"
JFK, 1960
"We no longer live in a world where only the actual firing of weapons represents a sufficient challenge to a nation's security to constitute maximum peril."
JFK, 1962
The Left and The Right approach the Iraq issue from two different sets of assumptions. On the one hand, there is the contention by the Left that nothing in the matter of Iraq justified armed intervention, which is countered by the contention by the Right that armed intervention was the last available and circumstance-mandated option.
Its absurd to postulate these two positions might be reconciled. The argument is far broader than one nation's actions regards another; it goes to the core of ideologic belief, and is exacerbated by the unchallenged global dominance and capability of The US.
I believe it absurd to attempt to quantify war, as some do by pointing out casualty figures. Its not about who or how many suffer or are killed, but about why those tragedies occurred, and what proceeds from them. It was proven beyond rational argument to have been absurd to assume Hitler's Germany was safely contained in the 1930s, and I see the actions of The US in the current matter driven specifically by the lessons learned from that pursuit of peace at any price. Global security is not a popularity contest, it is a life-and-death struggle. I believe it absurd to posit US motivations in the current matter are venal or hegemonistic. I believe Iraq is integral to the War on Terrorism. I believe the advance of technology has rendered the principle of the Monroe Doctrine applicable on a global scale. Others believe precisely the opposite. I believe history shall determine which beliefs were unfounded. I do not believe that those sharing my beliefs will be proven to have been in error.
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
--Dwight Eisenhower
Timber, I disagree with this statement wholeheartedly:
Quote:Its absurd to postulate these two positions might be reconciled. The argument is far broader than one nation's actions regards another; it goes to the core of ideologic belief, and is exacerbated by the unchallenged global dominance and capability of The US.
It is only the increased polarization of thought, encouraged by the media, that makes your statement tenable. There are not just two positions in any debate, although extreme partisans on each side of any issue try to present it that way. And we Americans are lazy thinkers, getting most of our information, and forming our judgements, from TV news. Congress has become so politically polarized that one feels he is watching a group of school children shouting Nyah, Nyah, Nyah at each other. It is the rigid and ideologically held position of the neo-cons, which has so influenced this administration, that has helped polarize the discussion.
Look at the abortion debate: the extremes have hardened, the dialogue has become the same old one-liners. There is not a reasonable and thoughtful comment about the issue out there. This is true of other issues as well.
There are many nuanced and yet trenchent attitudes toward this war, (and toward abortion, and energy policy, and free trade, and the environment, etc. ad infinitum) but we seldom get to hear them.
I have not yet posted that I was encouraged by the stories in today's NYTimes -- front page story -- about the changes planned in Iraq and what they were and how they would be implemented. I have been such a vocal anti-war poster here that such "encouraging the enemy," as it would be seen in these ideological times, makes one look wishy-washy and wimpish, rather than open to different ideas.
dys, Your post says it all; efforts put into guns and war machines only takes away from 'humanitarian' goals of food and shelter. Will humans ever learn?
dys
That Eisenhower quote is one I've never before seen. Thank you very kindly.
timber
I like your post above. But I think it has a deep failing. We know that many Germans living in the thirties, or Brits before, would have been as reluctant as yourself to perceive the venality of their motherland's activities. In great part, this would be so because so much of either culture was NOT venal, but brilliant and constructive and truly wonderful.
But I see you (and others) fighting off any admission that such venality might play a SIGNIFICANT IF PROPORTIONATELY MINOR part of US activity. It seems almost as if this perception or admission would, if allowed in, surely spread like some terrible virus and destroy all.
There was an extraordinary PBS special last week on war coverage in the US (for which I can't locate a link). As painful as it was to go through the whole Viet Nam argument again, the similarities with the present situation were undeniable. It takes too too goddamn long, and it takes too many dead young people and civilians, before the hubris is deflated.
Credo Timberlandko
Quote:I believe it absurd to posit US motivations in the current matter are venal or hegemonistic. I believe Iraq is integral to the War on Terrorism. I believe the advance of technology has rendered the principle of the Monroe Doctrine applicable on a global scale. Others believe precisely the opposite. I believe history shall determine which beliefs were unfounded. I do not believe that those sharing my beliefs will be proven to have been in error.
Some of us are rationalists
dyslexia, that is a wonderful quote from Eisenhower. Profound.
Quote:that such venality might play a SIGNIFICANT IF PROPORTIONATELY MINOR part of US activity
Blatham, how are you using venal here? I think of venal as corrupt in the sense of taking bribes, but you must be using it differently here. Perhaps as inherently evil or with evil intent?
