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October 03, 2006
On Nation Building & American Magicalism
Prompted by an somewhat typical George Will column, The Leaders [Americans] Have
Aside from this amusing closing (whose connexion with the remainder of the opinion piece is a bit obscure)
"Where's the leader?" Bush, according to Woodward, has exclaimed in dismay about the Iraqi government's dithering. "Where's George Washington? Where's Thomas Jefferson? Where's John Adams, for crying out loud?" For a president to ask that question about Iraq, that tribal stew, is enough to cause one to ask it about the United States.there is Will's foolish comment:
At last, a division of labor that uses the U.S. military only for properly military purposes and assigns responsibilities in a way that will force Iraq's government to grow up. In the name of counterinsurgency, there has been too much of what today's military argot calls "full-spectrum operations" -- operations that go beyond killing insurgents to building schools, connecting sewers and other civil projects that keep the training wheels on the Iraqi government's bicycle and keep the United States chasing the chimera of "nation-building."
There is nothing chimerical about "nation building" - it all depends on of course what one truly means by nation building.
Americans are not going to "win" their objectives unless they engage in 'nation building' - but nation building focused on limited, practical objectives. Not pie-in-the-sky re-engineering of Iraqi or Afghan society, but practical, pragmatic policy and assistance aimed at stable states capable of following their own interest and eventually achieve social progress.
That is not the case of what a supposedly 'conservative' - but certainly evangelical - American government undertook (I would note that the American Left is quite as bad, although at least the hypocrisy angle on government transformationalism is absent), rather they have been guided by the "transform the ignorant heathens" thinking that one sees on American blogs.
Posted by The Lounsbury at October 3, 2006 04:33 PM
Filed Under:
Iraq
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MENA Region General
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Politics - EU FP
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Politics - US FP
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Comments
...assigns responsibilities in a way that will force Iraq's government to grow up.
That's a little like telling a bunch of bricks to pull themselves together.
What he's advocating is by and large what they did in Vietnam, up until the point where they had effectively lost the war.
Posted by: Klaus ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://lounsbury.aqoul.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at October 3, 2006 10:08 PM
You are correct. Will's comment reveals he does not even know what counterinsurgency actually is.
COIN doctrine doesn't always require building a full-fledged nation but it certainly requires building solid relationships with locals, partly by doing such things as wells, schools, or whatever improvements to which they attach great weight. "killing insurgents" is maybe 10 % of COIN and not the most important part either.
Posted by: mark safranski at October 6, 2006 03:45 AM
There is clearly no way to achieve US objectives via failed states. Building a shiney new democracy in six months is pure fabulation, but building a state framework, well, at least a foundation may be laid.
Posted by: The Lounsbury at October 6, 2006 05:39 PM
At www.tpmcafe.com, there's a discussion about the reconstruction of Iraq by a guy who was there and wrote a book about it. My favorite part was:
"There was Scott Erwin, a 21-year-old former intern in Vice President Cheney's office, who was assigned to work for the CPA team trying to overhaul the Interior Ministry. This was no throw-away job. The Interior Ministry, as we all know, oversees all of Iraq's police forces. Erwin told an interviewer that his favorite job, before going to Baghdad, was as an ice cream truck driver."
IIRC, you tend to be pettish concerning this subject, so it might be a good idea to lay in some blood pressure meds before looking at it.
BTW, how is the myoclonus?
Posted by: Roger Bigod at October 10, 2006 06:55 PM
Myoclunus is better. Good drugs and fading I believe, the problem.
Posted by: The Lounsbury at October 10, 2006 10:26 PM
Nerves take forever to repair themselves, so slow fading is expected. Glad you found some effective drugs in the meantime.
Posted by: Roger Bigod at October 10, 2006 11:25 PM
