War In Iraq, Round 3?
Once again there is a fraying of nerves and tensions in the Middle East. Once again Iraq seems to be the center of that mess. And once again we have a number of people pushing the United States to once again go to war. You can probably guess what I think.
I'll first say this; I always believe that everyone is entitled to offer their opinion and are entitled to defend their opinion with whatever facts and information they can manage. Many have said, during this latest crisis in Iraq, that the architects of the lat war should simply keep quiet, because they were wrong. Make no mistake, I think they were very, very wrong then, I've since thought them even more wrong, if that is even possible. But I do think they should be allowed to voice their opinions.
So most of those reading that have probably dismissed my opinions and are thinking I'm some sort of moron. I contend that the fallacy is in thinking that it is okay to simply shut them out. Why is that not a good idea? Because if we don't let them speak, if we don't allow them to remind us of their fallacy and the reason they were wrong, it makes it all too simple for anyone else whose only difference is in our not knowing them beforehand, pushing the same ideas, and our not recognizing as much.
I've no illusions of the American people's limited memory. We get distracted very easily when it comes to details. Absent seeing, reading, hearing the likes of Cheney and the Neo-Cons forces us to remind us, forces us to discuss, what they said and did before. Instead of just remembering, "hey, those were the folks that were wrong about something some time ago" we have to associate the details, "hey, they were the guys who lied and got us into that war we didn't need to fight".
Hearing the same cast of characters who pushed us to war just over a decade ago, a war we only just got out of, tell us we should start that war again, is painful. That is no doubt why so many say they would like them to just shut up. But that isn't what's best for us. We have to endure their woeful inability to learn from their mistakes, so that we can learn from them instead.
So what do we do with Iraq? This is another difficult reality America has to accept; we cannot control the world. It is very easy to fall into an mentality that centers on the idea that the US, just by talking tough and throwing around its military force, can control the rest of the world and make other nations do what we want. That we would dissuade others merely by the "fear" our military power instills is itself a faulty precept as if that were the case we long would have held sway all around the world such that there would not be terror organizations opposing the United States.
The issues in Iraq and throughout the Middle East stem form such similarly faulty thinking. Expecting that simply "a little" more military force will end the religiously fueled struggle centuries old, accentuated by the real current struggles of securing resources and opportunities, is a fantasy you'd only see work in a novel or anime. There is no easy answer to the Iraq issue, something few seemed to have realized after all this time. Even if we were to shower every citizen in Iraq with all the things they could ever need to live a comfortable and happy life - money, food, security - it would not extinguish the religious divide that inspires much of the conflict.
A diplomatic solution is the only answer here. It usually is the only answer to solving a problem, not just pushing it off. Is there a military role? There very well may be one that involves providing room for diplomacy. But we have to realize you're not going to bomb your way to peace in Iraq or any other nation. And if you're talking about using military force to secure a nation subject to the tactics of terrorists and guerrilla warfare, you're not talking about a "quick" or "small" military action.
I'll first say this; I always believe that everyone is entitled to offer their opinion and are entitled to defend their opinion with whatever facts and information they can manage. Many have said, during this latest crisis in Iraq, that the architects of the lat war should simply keep quiet, because they were wrong. Make no mistake, I think they were very, very wrong then, I've since thought them even more wrong, if that is even possible. But I do think they should be allowed to voice their opinions.
So most of those reading that have probably dismissed my opinions and are thinking I'm some sort of moron. I contend that the fallacy is in thinking that it is okay to simply shut them out. Why is that not a good idea? Because if we don't let them speak, if we don't allow them to remind us of their fallacy and the reason they were wrong, it makes it all too simple for anyone else whose only difference is in our not knowing them beforehand, pushing the same ideas, and our not recognizing as much.
I've no illusions of the American people's limited memory. We get distracted very easily when it comes to details. Absent seeing, reading, hearing the likes of Cheney and the Neo-Cons forces us to remind us, forces us to discuss, what they said and did before. Instead of just remembering, "hey, those were the folks that were wrong about something some time ago" we have to associate the details, "hey, they were the guys who lied and got us into that war we didn't need to fight".
Hearing the same cast of characters who pushed us to war just over a decade ago, a war we only just got out of, tell us we should start that war again, is painful. That is no doubt why so many say they would like them to just shut up. But that isn't what's best for us. We have to endure their woeful inability to learn from their mistakes, so that we can learn from them instead.
So what do we do with Iraq? This is another difficult reality America has to accept; we cannot control the world. It is very easy to fall into an mentality that centers on the idea that the US, just by talking tough and throwing around its military force, can control the rest of the world and make other nations do what we want. That we would dissuade others merely by the "fear" our military power instills is itself a faulty precept as if that were the case we long would have held sway all around the world such that there would not be terror organizations opposing the United States.
The issues in Iraq and throughout the Middle East stem form such similarly faulty thinking. Expecting that simply "a little" more military force will end the religiously fueled struggle centuries old, accentuated by the real current struggles of securing resources and opportunities, is a fantasy you'd only see work in a novel or anime. There is no easy answer to the Iraq issue, something few seemed to have realized after all this time. Even if we were to shower every citizen in Iraq with all the things they could ever need to live a comfortable and happy life - money, food, security - it would not extinguish the religious divide that inspires much of the conflict.
A diplomatic solution is the only answer here. It usually is the only answer to solving a problem, not just pushing it off. Is there a military role? There very well may be one that involves providing room for diplomacy. But we have to realize you're not going to bomb your way to peace in Iraq or any other nation. And if you're talking about using military force to secure a nation subject to the tactics of terrorists and guerrilla warfare, you're not talking about a "quick" or "small" military action.
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