The recent Dick Cheney/Iraq debate reminded me of a great article I read last semester by conservative columnist Peggy Noonan...I would encourage everyone to read the full text--especially conservative Bush supporters who are disillusioned with the way the Iraq War has panned out (like me).
The following direct quote from this article perhaps best encapsulates the ugly reality of Saddam's removal from power.
"Here is an unhappy fact: Certain authoritarians and tyrants whose leadership is illegitimate and unjust have functioned in history as--ugly imagery coming--garbage-can lids on their societies. They keep freedom from entering, it is true. But when they are removed, the garbage--the freelance terrorists, the grievance merchants, the ethnic nationalists--pops out all over. Yes, freedom is good and to be strived for. But cleaning up the garbage is not pretty. And is sometimes leaves the neighborhood in an even bigger mess than it had been."
I think history vindicates this argument. Whether Tito in Yugoslavia or Suharto in Indonesia, brutal authoritarianism gravitates towards societies where it is needed to keep order. The lid on Iraq has now been off for four years--and garbage is strewn all across its neighborhood.
Now we shall wait and see how long it takes until we have sufficiently fatigued ourselves in the effort to take out Iraq's unlimited sectarian trash...
2 comments:
You had me fooled for a minute with that picture of the girl and your niece....
I guess the point of this pussy-footing rhetoric is that sometimes its better to leave the lid on than actually fix the problem. Well, let's do a little math and figure out whether leaving the lid on the garbage is really for the benefit of the garbage filled country, or just for the benefit of those who then don't have to look at it. I'll use the most recent and obvious example of Iraq:
Saddam Hussein was the leader of Iraq from July 16, 1979 to April 9, 2003. During his tenure, an estimated 200,000 Iraqis "disappeared", 500,000 of his own people died during his war with Iran and 300,000 Iranians died, 50-100,000 Kurds were killed with mustard gas and nerve agents, there were the execution of over 10,000 political prisoners (some of them simply to show the world their prisons weren't overcrowded), and the deaths of an estimated 400-500,000 Iraqi children under age 5 thanks to his refusal to actually distribute supplies he obtained in his oil for fuel program. On top of this, countless other "smaller" atrocities were committed, but these numbers were less than 1,000 people a pop, so I won't use them in my math. In addition to this, 900,000 Iraqis were forced evacuate their homes and move to the Southern No-Fly Zone or else become political refugees in neighboring nations. (See http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/04/20030404-1.html and http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=5773)
Thus, by low counts, Saddam was responsible for at least one million deaths (most estimate it around 1.5 to 2 million). So, for his 24 years in power, with a low guess of 1 million dead, Saddam averaged taking care of about 42,000 people a year. Since the US invaded Iraq, high estimates say that 66,373 Iraqis (http://www.iraqbodycount.net/database/) , 3,257 Americans (only 2,656 in combat), and 260 coalition troops (http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/) have died. This high count totals 69,890 casualties (as of 4/4/2007) over the course of four years, or about 17,500 people a year-slightly less than what Mr. Hussein was pulling off. Additionally, since the US imposed sanctions of Iraq after the Gulf War in 1991, there's been the deaths of the 400,000+ children, which averages into about 33,000+ deaths a year. Since the US invasion, all sanctions have been revoked, and food and medicine is actually getting to the people who have been needing it all along. By my rough figures (I'd be happy for someone to show me where I messed up), I figure that since the invasion, we've saved about twice as many lives as we've lost. Even if food and medicine are only getting to half of the kids who need it (which I'm quite confident is not the case), we're still breaking even.
Now, to consider the idea that "the freelance terrorists, the grievance merchants, the ethnic nationalists-pops out all over." Well, near as I can remember, we haven't had any major terrorist attacks on the US or its allies since we invaded Iraq. Even if we had a September 11th every year, the world is still a better place (judging by number of people who are actually still alive). By my calculations, we would have to uncover an average of 14 9/11's a year to equal the death toll that one "garbage lid" managed by himself.
I think that we're better off opening up the garbage and taking care of business. Sure, we haven't cleaned up all the problems in Iraq, but we have eliminated the major ones. The minor problems that remain only get any attention and cause the disillusionment of countless Americans because they listen to the overbearing rants of the national and international press, who, in the end, are only looking out for themselves and don't care about what actually has been done. It's sad that so many people are willing to be bowled over by the media's peer pressure rather than simply think for themselves.
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