I was never among those who believed that the United States went to war in Iraq in order to steal its oil. Iraq was not going to keep its oil underground and off the market, whether its government was headed by Sadaam Hussein, Muqtada al-Sadr, Nouri al-Maliki, or David Petreus. And, oil being a fungible commodity, once it is taken from the ground and put on the market it goes to whoever is prepared to pay for it.
There were several reasons that the United States chose to go to war with Iraq, and although stealing its oil was not one of them, some were far from noble. However, there was one reason to use military power that I thought at the time was a valid one -- the responsibility that the world had to free the Iraqi people from Sadaam Hussein who controlled their lives and seemed about to establish a permanent dynasty that would continue that control even after he died. This was, after all, a regime that tortured members of its national soccer team for losing a match, and used its citizens as cannon fodder in unjustified aggression first against Iran and then Kuwait. Might not the United States replace the dictatorial regime in Iraq with a democratic government the way it did by occupying Germany and Japan after World War II? And, might not such a democratic success eventually serve as a model for the rest of the Arab world?
The crowds on the streets of Tunisia and Egypt appear to be proving me wrong. The democracies that were established by the United States and its allies in Japan and Germany after World War II were perhaps a function of a world order than no longer exists. Tanks and bombers no longer seem to be effective tools to overthrow dictatorships. It seems that in the 21st century satellite television, cell phones and the world wide web are far more effective weapons in the fight to overthrow dictatorial or autocratic regimes. We will have to wait to learn if democracies replace the overthrown police states as happened in Poland and the Czech Republic or if the revolution merely replaces one police state with another as it did in Iran and Russia.
Do you really think we should occupy every fascist dictatorship in the world? Our military would be mighty busy. Where do we draw the line?
ReplyDeleteWhen we signed on to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights* we took on the obligation of trying to ensure that, among other rights, everyone also has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. So I do believe that we have not only a moral, but also a legal obligation to promote democracy, including helping to remove dictatorships, whether they be fascist, communist, Islamist or other. However, I don't think that goal would be advanced if we occupied every dictatorship in the world even if that were possible. The question is indeed where and how to draw the lines.
ReplyDelete* http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml