The near-unanimous condemnation of the war in Iraq seems to have been built up as a genuine consensus on both sides of the Atlantic. The bad faith and hypocrisy of its detractors is breathtaking. It is as though no one had ever supported the intervention in the first place, which makes such intellectual (im)posturing all the more suspect. Although the Americans are not exempt from criticism, they are nevertheless not condemned to repeating the painful experience of Vietnam. Nothing is less like Vietnam than the Iraq war, starting with the armed forces operating there. Their power, versatility and flexibility are unquestionably the keys to the possibly successful democratisation of Iraq, no matter what the bellicose pacifists found among US Democrats and Europeans think. Moreover, it is very unlikely that American leadership will fade away between the Tigris and the Euphrates.
Don't be too Quick to Condemn the Iraq War
‘If the Army were to leave Iraq tomorrow, a simple statistical comparison would show that the American Army has lost the same number of men in nearly four years as in barely three hours on Omaha Beach. Some Vietnam!’
Maurice G. Dantec, American Black Box
Reading the press, blogs and all the other media, you can’t help being struck by the way that the Iraq war seems to have become more and more universally condemned, or almost so. It is even rather irritating sometimes to see or hear the Cassandra of the day revelling voluptuously in his condescending ‘you-see-I-told-you-so’ tone.
The temptation to join their camp is on a par with the torments of Tantalus as those ‘clumsy Yankee oafs’ seem to multiply mistakes, blunders and muddles at every stage of an unending stabilisation process. It’s cowardly, but you can’t help sharing at least some of the criticisms, particularly those aimed at the Bush administration.
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