Shots Across The Bow

Loathsome Liberal

A while back, I discussed Gary Kamiya, editor of Salon, and his comments on how some liberals wished for a bad outcome in Iraq, simply because that would benefit Bush, whom they considered as a greater evil. At the time, I took a lot of flack for suggesting, even though it was suggested by Kamiya himself, that this point of view was common among liberals.

All I can say is that if it isn't common, it sure seems to be cropping up a lot lately.

Take a look at the latest from Jonathen Schell, as posted on Alternet, titled, The Importance of Losing the War. In it, Schell argues that we should leave Iraq as soon as possible, abandoning them to "whatever international forces can be cobbled together." You see, the US doesn't have the right or the capability to rebuild a war torn nation and foster a new democratic government. And the Iraqi people hate us for deposing Saddam Hussein. As Alterman says,

The Iraqi state has been forcibly removed. That state was a horrible one; yet a nation needs a state. The children must go to school; the trains must run; the museums must open; murderers must be put in jail.

In overthrowing Hussein's Ba'athist government, we deprived Iraqi's of those benefits. We also deprived them of underground torture chambers, human beings put through shredders, mass graves filled with executed dissidents, children's prisons, rape, murder, fear, and God only knows what else, but yeah, he kept the trains running on time, so we're the bad guys.

Schell successfully ignores the truth in Iraq, that the vast majority of Iraqis are happy that Hussein is gone; that most of them are happy with the US presence in Iraq; that dissaffection is limited to the small area controlled by Saddam's Sunni allies. Things are not perfect in Iraq, but it is nowhere near the hopeless mess Schell makes it out to be.

Which brings us to a closer examination of Schell's accuracy.

[The mistake was n]ot that the Baghdad museum, the Jordanian Embassy, the United Nations and Imam Ali mosque, among other places, were left unguarded.

As everyone now knows, the Baghdad Museum was not looted, as early sensational reposrts suggested. Most of the "missing" items were later found, exactly where the museum workers and curators had hidden them. A few, relatively minor pieces were destroyed or stolen, but the bulk of the collection is intact. The United Nations HQ declined to have a sufficient US protection force, and rejected security measures suggested by the US, including barricades to protect against a truck bomb.

The fact that Schell relies on such obviously false charges leads me to wonder if he had any legitimate issues. Apparently not, as Schell goes on to state catagorically:

But the United States, precisely because it is a single foreign state, which like all states has a highly self-interested agenda of its own, is incapable of providing Iraq with a government that serves its own people.

He offers no proof of this assertion, nothing to back it up, nothing to counter the obvious response, "We've done it before!"

We rebuilt Japan, in the process taking it from a near feudal government under the Emporer to a democracy, still nominally under the Emperor. While there are significant differences betwen Iraq and Japan, the fact remains that the US has demonstrated the ability to successfully rebuild an occupied nation, installing a democratic government.

Schell shows the worst tendencies of some liberal columnists; outrageous moral equivalency, repeating lies, distortions, and discredited stories to portray conservatives in a bad light, combined with a complete disregard for human suffering if it advances his cause. There's room for a difference of opinion, and the First Amendment gives him the right to spout whatever trash he wants. Dissent is a good thing, but dear God, can't the left come up with something that makes some sense? Something that bears at least a passing resemblence to reality?

Posted by Rich at September 10, 2003 11:56 PM | TrackBack