[lit-ideas] Re: Why us?
- From: John McCreery <mccreery@xxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 11:46:24 +0900
On 2005/07/11, at 2:14, Eric Yost wrote:
Impeaching Bush and electing a total cut-and-run US President
wouldn't help. Leaving Iraq immediately would spare lots of money
and troops, but probably cause many more Iraqi deaths and give the
terrorists greater incentive, especially if the terrorists believed
that their actions, rather than US internal political mood, had
effected the ouster.
There is, of course, precedent for a contrary conclusion. The "fall
of Vietnam" did, no question about it, result in severe suffering for
those who had allied themselves with the American cause and were
abandoned when the Americans left. But a lot of gratuitous violence
ceased. And now, some decades later, old soldiers revisit their
battlefields on tours guided by the descendants of their enemies and
capitalists search with enthusiasm for new labor pools and markets.
The current case is more complex to be sure, Iraq being a "nation" in
the same sense as the former Yugoslavia, inhabited by tribes whose
vendettas are likely to be bloody, indeed. Still, the argument that
our presence alone is a continuing incitement to violence and our
efforts to suppress it have clearly and repeatedly failed is a strong
one.
The phrase "give the terrorists greater incentive" is also highly
ambiguous. What incentives are we talking about? If we imagine our
opponents as filled with mindless bloodlust, we may feel that we have
no choice but to try to put them down. But how sure are we of this
premise: One thinks, for example, of David Ben Gurion, Menachem
Begin, or, a better example perhaps, Nelson Mandela. There are any
number of examples of "terrorists" who, having won their battles,
find themselves confronted with the task of governing, the
opportunity to do less bloody things, and, yes, in some cases to
enjoy the fruits of corruption. But continuing to risk life and limb
to slaughter the defeated enemy....
John McCreery
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