October 16, 2006
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bad argument
There are many arguments that I hear frequently that anger
me but one in particular I heard recently is really driving me mad. The argument goes that we should get out of Iraq
to send a message to the Iraqi people that they need to stand up and take care of
themselves, to stop sitting on the sidelines and take responsibility for their
own future.I know not what kind of opinion polling and studies lead to
this argument reaching the forefront of American politics but I truly wish the
argument would be shut away back into the netherworld of immensely stupid ideas
from whence it came.The argument is quite simply grotesque. The arrogant,
condescending, paternalistic tone of such a statement is so utterly apparent
that I cannot conceive of the degree of self delusion that one must undertake
in order to honestly hold this belief and look anyone living through the horror
of Iraq in the
face. The Iraqi people aren’t trying hard enough? We invaded their country on a
poor pathetic pretense, assaulted their people, tortured their people, botched
the reconstruction effort and allowed their country to slide into chaos and
virtual civil war and we’re going to say that it’s all *their* fault? Because
they aren’t trying hard enough? That if we just go away and let them be, then
of course things will get better because they’ll have no choice but to try
harder? No. That’s delusional thinking. It’s the thinking that can only come
from a people who have never experienced suffering on the scale of that which
the Iraqi people are facing. It’s like pretending that the problems in Iraq
are equivalent to children goofing off and not doing their homework rather than
a situation where people’s entire families are being slaughtered and live in
fear of a painful terrible death every day.This is much the same as the arguments against welfare. You know the arguments. The ones that say
that people are only poor because they don’t get off their lazy butts and do
something. It completely ignores the well documents and carefully studied realities
of poverty. Apparently we’ve now turned
to the belief that the Iraqi people need to “pull themselves up by their
bootstraps” just like we good Americans have. Give me a break.Now, don’t get me wrong. I do think there probably are good
reasons to draw down troops in Iraq
(there are also good reasons to stay which is why it’s such a hard problem).
Occupation rarely leads to peace and often does serve as a spark that
continuously lights the fire of rebelliousness and chaos throughout the
country. In particular, many in Iraq
may never believe in or put their support behind any government formed in Iraq
under the oversight of American officials.
The government that is created needs to be independent and the Iraqi
people have to actually believe that it is independent.And you know, maybe that’s the argument that people are
really trying to make when they make these statements. But if so, their
formulation is god awful. It’s simply a terrible thing to suggest that
extraordinary suffering that can be directly traced to our intervention only
persists because of Iraqi negligence.
