John Robb explains why we'll be staying in Iraq for a long, long time.
« Romney and the War | Main | Rudy and the Map » The Long Run11 Sep 2007 03:49 pm Comments (13)
I hate the people who try to posture as if they know for a fact what the American people will or will not tolerate, or when they say, off the cuff, that the oldest, richest, most stable and powerful democracy on the planet is "damaged." Saying it doesn't make it so, you know. 
But I speak for The People!
John Aristides writes: "I hate the people who try to posture as if they know for a fact what the American people will or will not tolerate, or when they say, off the cuff, that the oldest, richest, most stable and powerful democracy on the planet is "damaged." Saying it doesn't make it so, you know." Saying it isn't damaged doesn't make it not damaged, either. Some people think that the fact that it's currently being run by a mildly retarded bloodthirsty frat boy who cares more about bike rides than human lives is a sign of that damage. But you go ahead and deny that what I just wrote qualifies as a "fact" if it makes you feel better about the goober. You're doing a helluva job, Johnny.
This dude is a total crank. He identifies a few new and intriguing factors, and extrapolates them beyond all reason. Globalization was never going to render states wholly irrelevant. Privatization of war doesn't leave the public wholly indifferent to the morality and strategic soundness of going to war. And there was a small but vocal base that subscribed to the Rambo/Green Lantern Theory of Vietnam, too, but after about a decade and a half, we withdrew. In fact, public opinion on Iraq has turned more quickly than during past wars such as Vietnam and Korea. It doesn't even add up on its own terms-- people are happy to keep states around to fight constant privatized wars, but we don't really care much about the wars because they're privatized, but otherwise states would be totally irrelevant. So... we don't care about the wars... except that they provide the sole reason for states to exist.
Who is this John Robb guy Reihan's so fond of? He writes like a cross between Alvin Toffler and Laurie Anderson.
Somebody murder MoeLarryandJesus.
This country's military can't support this war for much longer, the military leadership won't support it and oh by the way, this is still a democracy, no matter how damaged it may be, and the American people simply will not tolerate decades more of this. Maybe. But the military could probably support many more years of involvement in Iraq given a reduction in the number of troops. 150,000 for a ten more years, no way; 70,000 for another decade, who knows? And, while polls say the Iraq war is highly unpopular with the public, you don't really see this much evidenced by a 1970 style vigorous antiwar movement. But what I don't get, though, is, even if it's feasible to wage war in Iraq a lot longer, what's in it for America? Seriously, it's hard to imagine that whatever government eventually emerges from the chaos wouldn't want to sell us their oil. And Kuwait plus aircraft carriers surely give us all the real estate we need to maintain enough air power to hold Iran in check (or occasionally bomb terrorist camps in the Iraqi dessert in the unlikely event that the place really does become what Afghanistan used to be under the Taliban). I mean, at the end of the day, what benefit do we get out of continuing the fiasco? I guess I'm naive, but I just don't see what's in it even for evil neocons. If one were truly devoted to the idea of a hyper-powerful USA, I can think of few better plans to undermine this power than year after year of catastrophically bloated budgets (what better way to undermine US economic power?), excessive wear and tear on the military, and a complete undermining of valuable diplomatic and cultural assets.
equalizer ejaculates: "Somebody murder MoeLarryandJesus." Of course that's not even my first death threat. But thanks for the thought.
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He can explain all he wants. But that doesn't make it so. I hate the people who try to posture as though they know for a fact that we're simply going to stay. This country's military can't support this war for much longer, the military leadership won't support it and oh by the way, this is still a democracy, no matter how damaged it may be, and the American people simply will not tolerate decades more of this.
Posted by Freddie | September 11, 2007 5:50 PM