It was real easy for me (and others in the netroots) to see what was wrong with the Iraq "adventure" back in 2002.
You can’t occupy people any more.
For all those idjits talking about "we have to fight them there or we’ll fight them here," a brief theoretical. Let’s assume Al Qaeda wins, tomorrow. The American government surrenders. George W. Bush is tried and executed. His kids are found and killed. Anyone associated with the Republican Party becomes a pariah, officially, and our new overlords begin the process of trying to bring an Islamic State to America, with all the benefits accruing thereto. They hold "elections," create a "new Constitution," and seek to enforce its laws.
Now, how many troops would it take to secure, say, Atlanta?
I mention this only because I happen to live in Atlanta. Atlanta is home to 6 million people, as of this year. That makes it about as big as Baghdad.
So how many Islamic fighters would it take to subdue and pacify Atlanta? Not the whole country, just Atlanta.
Exactly. It can’t be done. We’ve got far too many NRA members for that to
happen. We’ve got too many patriots of all kinds. Not to mention religious factions, Catholics and Protestants,
black and white, along with ethnic minorities. Compared to the checkers of Sunni and Shia, we’re talking multi-dimension chess here.
I’m certain the
resulting civil war would be horrible, the destruction unimaginable. I
also know the invaders would be driven out, with the collateral damage
that any Atlantans who’d become Muslims would be forced underground,
then exiled or killed, not because they were part of the invasion but
because they couldn’t be trusted.
Now a country may be able to occupy itself. That’s what Saddam Hussein was doing when we went in. That’s what Robert Mugabe is doing in Zimbabwe. There are still tyrants and tyrannies in the world, who pit local people against one another, raising some up in order to oppress the others. It’s evil, it means the end of civilization, but it can be done, especially if nearby nations are willing to look the other way and fund the effort by, say, buying the victim nation’s resources on the cheap.
But outsiders? Not a chance.
It really wouldn’t matter how well-armed our Al Qaeda overlords
happened to be. They could come in body armor, and they could apply all
the armor they wanted to their trucks. They could have all the money in
the world — all the loot the oil power could generate — and it would
do them no good at all. They would lose.
Does any American doubt that?
You may argue, if you like, that the reason for this is American
Exceptionalism. Yes, sir, Americans are the greatest people in the
world, unique in our love of country and our system of government.
It’s a grand old flag.
But so, by the way, are Iraqis. Iraqis were civilized when all our
ancestors were barely walking on two legs. They were civilized before
the great American Indian civilizations rose on the mesas, civilized
before the Greeks or the Romans, civilized long before the French
discovered cooking or the time of Jesus. Before the time of Moses, even. Before some evangelicals believe the Earth even existed. Iraqis invented civilization. Western civilization, anyway. They even invented beer.
The point is no one can occupy territory anymore. No country can occupy a
nation against its will. The Soviets learned this in Afghanistan 20 years ago. It buried them. The Israelis have been learning this the hard
way for 40 years, and the lesson is still being taught. You used to be able to do it, in earlier centuries, when there were fewer people, when guns were not as efficient as they are now, when fortresses could hold out against bombs and bombers.
No more.
So why did anyone think we could get away with this? Why does anyone think we still can? Why aren’t the people who supported this stupidity in rubber rooms? And why aren’t the ones who thought of this being put on trial, for the barbarians they are?
Why our our journalists still playing Baghdad Bob?
