On Iraq

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Why I was opposed to the war on Iraq:

  1. Didn’t trust Bush or Blair.
  2. The long history of US and UK meddling in Iraq, beginning with the UK using poison gas in the 1920ties
    to defeat popular uprisings, through the US’s support of the Ba’ath party’s 1963 coup to the wheelings
    and dealings in the 1980ties, when saddam was our best friend as long as he kept killing Iranians, and
    let’s not forget how the Shi’ite population was encourage to rise up only to betrayed, or the decade long
    sanctions that hurt only the Iraqi people, not Saddam.
  3. The reasons given for the war were phony. It was clear from the start that “Saddam has weapons of mass destruction” and “Saddam has ties with Al Quaida” were so much lies.
  4. Afghanistan. Here we were supposed to believe Iraq would be led into a glorious future, when the
    country that we had been promised this about the year before was largely forgotten.
  5. A healthy skepticism of the idea that democracy can be imposed from above.
  6. A fear of the consequences of what would happen during the war, as well as after. Fortunately, the
    war was less bloody than I had expected, but the same cannot be said of the occupation.
  7. Not much faith in Bush and co not to fuck things up even if they were sincere.

We’re now more then a year further, the war is “over” and the occupation of Iraq an established fact. Yes, yes, you opposed this war, good for you, but you have to deal with reality as it is, not as you should wish it to be. Does this mean you should resign yourself to the occupation and support it, for some values of support? I don’t think so, as my presence at the March 20th anti-occupation demonstration in Amsterdam showed, but I’ve found it hard to articulate why.

It is tempting to give in to the calls to be grownup, mature and sensible and acquiescence in what Bush and Blair have done. Let them get away with their crime. But would you let a burglar live in your neighbour’s house just your neighbour was abusive to his family and the burglar says he has the best interests of the family at heart? I think not. Which is one reason I cannot accept the continuing occupation of Iraq.

The other reason is more complicated, more of a gut feeling than something I can reason out. I don’t think having US troops in Iraq is doing either Iraq or the US much good. Even if they would be under UN control tomorrow, with Bush having given up the presidency in favour of Kerry, I think I’d still oppose the occupation. Because there’s still reason #5 I was opposed to the war, something that nagged at me when bright-eyed and bushy-tailed warliberals tried to sell the war to me.

The idea is either (if you believed in this war from the start) that we in the West have a duty to liberate Iraq from Saddam and make it into a democracy or (if you didn’t) that, since “we broke it, we bought it” and we still have a duty to the Iraqi people to make their country into a democracy. It is an attractive idea, a great cause to be part of, the chance to do some good in the world in a very concrete way.

But…

Do the people who are in power in Iraq share your ideals, your goals? Will the Iraqi people themselves think the same about freedom, democracy and apple pie? Will the occupation not tend to exacerbate already existing problems or even become the focal point for anti-democratic forces? Will the temptation to take “shortcuts”, to e.g. install an “enlightened dictator’ be resisted? Is it actually possible to impose democracy from the outside? The history of US foreign policy in the 20th century, whether led by a Democratic or a Republican president, certainly doesn’t make me optimistic.

And yes, I’m aware that if the coalition troops withdraw from Iraq, there will likely be a civil war, with at best some strongman getting into power and rule Iraq much in thew same way Saddam did. The trouble is, the civil war is already there, with the coalition troops just being another target…It seems to me that at least sometimes, the presence of coalition troops just worsens the situation. Just look at Fallujah.

So what is the answer? I honestly don’t know. What I would try is to start withdrawing the coalition troops, but not to abandon Iraq. Democratic and civic forces need to be supported while those who would want to exploit Iraqi suffering for their own goals, like Al Quida, need to be defeated.

After that…?