by Dave Roberts » Thu Sep 25, 2014 6:05 am
ET, we threw billions upon billions into rebuilding Iraq and more money, time, and even American lives into training the Iraqi army only to have the Iraq government sell "generalships" to the highest bidder. We provided planes and other weapons that were either not maintained or sold to others who wanted them. My problem now is that I don't see the situation as likely to improve. No matter how bad Saddam was, and he indeed was, his philosophy of government by instilling fear in his enemies seems to be the only one that works in much of that region, alas.
I have too much historical memory of how we spent billions in our resources, and over 40,000 of my generation gave their lives to fight in Vietnam. The problem was that we didn't change the outcome at all or understand the culture that produced the war. We just plowed into it. We plowed into Iraq, and now the US is trying to prevent the collapse of a country that we didn't understand or manage to pacify. We just removed Saddam and left them in worse shape. Unfortunately, another 10 years of boots on the ground would not have resolved the problem of an unstable country.
Democratic traditions do not exist in the Middle East outside of Israel which brought it from the US and Europe. Autocratic and religiously sanctioned rulers are the tradition. They are not heirs to the Greek or Roman models of government. When the Greeks and Romans ruled this area, it was only by force of arms. Democratic institutions were for the folks at home, not the conquered lands. I don't see a likelihood of representative government in that region.