Not yet—but the history of the last three years in Iraq has greatly deepened my appreciation of the Federal government's abilty to screw up anything. It might have been different as I outlined in my August 2005 column "Iraq 2007."
3. What should the U.S. do in Iraq now?
Train sufficient Iraqi forces to secure the country's borders and scrap the current constitution and encourage a transition to a loose confederation of democratically self-governing Sunni, Kurdish and Shi'a regions and then get out. I offered a similar plan in my January 2005 "Free Kurdistan!"
Ronald Bailey is Reason's science correspondent.
Let the Shiite Crescent bloom
Tim Cavanaugh
1. Did you support the invasion of Iraq?
No, which is not the same as saying I don't believe the United States is engaged in a serious, multi-dimensional struggle against radical Islam, and that intelligent use of violence is an important tool in that fight. (I don't know whether we still need to draw this distinction, but I haven't forgotten being called a traitor and fifth columnist for suggesting the invasion of Iraq was ill-advised.)
2. Have you changed your position?
Somewhat, but like Rhett Butler, I won't join a cause until it's truly lost. The occupation has gone better than any prudent person had a right to expect, and the failure of so many hawks to understand this shows how unserious they were all along. What made the invasion a mistake was not any particular fact on the ground in Iraq, but the three-year, day-by-day demonstration it has given our country's enemies (Iran most notably) of the precise limits of American power and resolve. The lessons our real enemies learn from this will come back to haunt us; that's why some guy way back in the 1900s said something about speaking softly and carrying a big stick.
3. What should the U.S. do in Iraq now?
Let the Shiite Crescent bloom: We've already spent thousands of lives and half a trillion dollars inadvertently nurturing it, so we might at least get the incremental benefit of having a deadly rival to the Salafists who are even more determined than the Shiites to destroy our civilization. (Just so, we should have let the Iranians finish kicking Saddam's ass in the 1980s.) That means accepting the current Mullahfied Iraqi government and leaving it to brutalize the Sunnis at will. This might offend our sense of decency, but if we stay in the country, the same historical forces that drove the British, the Turks, and all other visitors to back the Sunnis over the Shiites will drive us down the same road.
Tim Cavanaugh is Reason's web editor.
Declare victory
Brian Doherty
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دردشة عراقية|10.17.11 @ 12:31PM|#
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