Victor Davis Hanson On Iraq
Victor Davis Hanson has an article out that helps provide some vital perspective on what we have accomplished in Iraq. It's a fitting read for a Memorial Day weekend.
There may be a lot to regret about the past policy of the United States in the Middle East, but the removal of Saddam Hussein and the effort to birth democracy in his place is surely not one of them. And we should remember that this Memorial Day.
Whatever our righteous anger at Khomeinist Iran, it was wrong, well aside from the arms-for-hostages scandal, to provide even a modicum of aid to Saddam Hussein, the great butcher of his own, during the Iran-Iraq war.
Inviting the fascist Baathist government of Syria into the allied coalition of the first Gulf War meant that we more or less legitimized the Assad regime’s take-over of Lebanon, with disastrous results for its people.
It may have been strategically in error not to have taken out Saddam in 1991, but it was morally wrong to have then encouraged Shiites and Kurds to rise up — while watching idly as Saddam’s reprieved planes and helicopters slaughtered them in the thousands.
A decade of appeasement of Islamic terrorism, with retaliations after the serial attacks — from the first World Trade Center bombing to Khobar Towers and the USS Cole — never exceeding the occasional cruise missile or stern televised lecture, made September 11 inevitable.
A decade was wasted in subsidizing Yasser Arafat on the pretense that he was something other than a mendacious thug.
By reminding us of our past policy failures, Hanson helps put what we have accomplished into context. Most of what we have done actually rectifies years of bad moves we have made in the Middle East. There is no government on the face of this earth who has done more to save the lives of Muslims than the United States. Please go read it.
UPDATE: Many thanks to Alexandra at All Things Beautiful for linking. High prasie indeed if she thinks my words worth quoting.
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Sneakeasy's Joint — May 28, 2006 @ 10:46 am
By Jim O'Hara, May 29, 2006 @ 11:28 am
This article could have been written by a Keynesian economist or a left-wing spin doctor trying to sell a big government aid program. The law of unintended consequences is completely absent from the Henson’s analysis. In other words, the negative effects of our actions in the region is completely absent from the analysis.
Do you remember that right after 9/11, Iran’s President deplored the attack on the WTC and offered us the use of Iran’s air bases to strike at the Taliban? But we alienated Iran’s government and the Iranians by invading a neighboring country against the wishes of UN and other Arab countries. Post Iraq invasion the Iranian people elected fanatics who spoke out again the United States. Unintended consequence.
The “strategic error” of not toppling Saddam in Gulf War I was nothing of the sort, as Bush Sr. explained in Time Magazine in 1998: http://www.thememoryhole.org/mil/bushsr-iraq.htm Recall that Bush Sr. also warned his son not to invade Iraq without UN backing; advice that “W” ignored. Read what Bush Sr. predicted would happen if we took out Saddam. Read the current headlines. Reflect on the wisdom of Bush Sr.
Iraq has not been the cakewalk that we were told it would be. As Iraq turns into a divided Shiite Iran 2.0, Kurdistan, and economically homeless Sunnis, the same disinformation machine that convinced Americans we needed to invade Iraq is smearing Iran in preparation for the next invasion. I am no fan of the fanatics that have been DEMOCRATICALLY elected into power in Iran, but recognize that by the infidel meddling in the Holy Land (read: occupation of Iraq), we have set off a cascade of events. Unintended consequences.
Another unintended consequence – Saddam wouldn’t have $70/barrel oil right now, because our destabilization of the region has doubled the price of oil.
Saddam used Willy Pete on the Kurds and it was identified as a chemical weapon (used to a .mil link to this, but I see it’s been removed), but when we use it against people in Fallujah, it’s conventional. Saddam tortured Iraqis and this was a reason to depose him – You might want to check in the basements of the Ministry of Information in Iraq, where the current government has been caught torturing prisoners. Tortured bodies turn up daily in Baghdad. Unintended consequences.
I think it’s sad that you’re trying to tie Memorial Day, which honors those men and women who have fought to keep American free, as a propaganda piece for the invasion of Iraq.
Jim
By Gaius, May 29, 2006 @ 11:40 am
Are you always so chipper?