| Thou Art Mortal |
14 April 2003
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Victory: Now the Peace Must Be Won
It was an odd war, with the victors sighing in relief rather than beating their chests in triumph. Of course, the outcome never was in doubt -- all the more so since the Iraqi military either could not or would not resist above the platoon level. But as Clauswitz said, "War is politics by another means," so the world must now resolve a number of political issues since the Ba'athist regime has been removed.
Ba'athism itself is the primary problem. A crypto-fascist political system gave rise to Saddam Hussein and if it is allowed to survive, the seeds of a second Saddam-ite dictator will be sown. Yet about 20% of the Iraqi population had some form of tie to the party. While a total purge of them would be true justice, de-Nazification of Germany could not occur beyond a certain level, nor could the Soviet communists be annihilated -- to do so would leave no managerial class. Ugly deal will have to be hade with some who deserve lynching.
The next problem is the anti-colonialist issue. Colonialist imperialist, as Lenin taught, is the highest developmental stage of Capitalism; that is, any society capable of committing imperialist expansion, by definition, is highly developed. The Medeans, Samnites, Picts, and Aztecs are no more because their cultures were unable to compete with the local imperialists.
The US and UK must, now that they are responsible, accept that their presence in Iraq will change Iraqi culture. After decades, Ba'athism is ingrained and it must be eradicated. It will take strengths one doubts that Washington and London have to remake this Arab culture into something less malignant. The criticism will come anyway, some good may as well come of it in addition.
One may suggest a constitution that redistributes wealth (on the grounds that the Saddam-ites stole it all anyway), enshrines equality of religions and sexes, bans militarism (Iraq should have no more of an offensive ability than Japan), and allows for the teaching of children, in their own languages, something of the sciences and philosophy of the West. Terribly un-Iraqi, but awfully good for the Iraqis.