How the War on Iraq Hurts the United States

[womzilla]

Part of the grand vision of the neoconservatives was, basically, the US as an ass-kicking machine. We could go anywhere, do anything, and make any government do what we want it to do because we have the best military in the world and the pure power of Democracy^tm backing it up. Underlying this vision of American omnipotence is the belief in American omniscience--that we can know what all of the other nations of the earth are doing.

The problem, of course, is that the myth of American omniscience was much more powerful than the fact of American ignorance. As the blogger Digby puts it:

Regardless of whether they hyped, sexed up or pimped out the intelligence on Iraq, the fact is that by invading Iraq the way we did and being proved complete asses now that no WMD have been discovered, one of our best defenses has been completely destroyed. It may have always been nothing but a pretense that we had hi-tech, super duper satellites with x-ray vision and all-knowing eavesdropping devices that can hear a pin drop half a world away but it was a very useful pretense. Nobody knew exactly what we were capable of. Now they do. It appears to everyone on the planet that our vaunted intelligence services couldn't find water even if they fell off of a fucking aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf.

It's this kind of thing that makes really crazy wackos like Kim Jong Il make mistakes. When a hugely powerful country like the United States proves to the entire world that it is not as powerful as everyone thought, petty tyrants and ambitious generals tend to get excited. This is why mighty nations should never fight wars unless they absolutely have to. It is always better to have enemies wonder whether they are as omnipotent as they appear. They should not risk proving otherwise unless they have no choice.

There's more, of course. There usually is. Go read.

Comments

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

My grandmother always said, "If you're a fool and you keep your mouth shut, people may think you're a fool. But if you open it, they'll know."

[peake.livejournal.com]

The damage the USA (and Britain) have suffered as a result of the war has been largely self-inflicted, of course. It was America who set up Guantanamo Bay, and hence proved to the world that they could not be trusted on human rights and international justice (while photographs of bound and blindfolded captive walking barefoot across gravel in front of a row of burly armed soldiers, or forced to kneel in front of American soldiers, have handed probably the most valuable propaganda coup imaginable to anti-American forces). It was America who refused to partake in the International court (having previously refused to join the rest of the world on tackling the environment), effectively saying America holds itself above the law, and above the rest of the world. It was America who weakened the United Nations by acting unilaterally over Iraq (and who is now cap in hand begging the UN to help set up a post-war government in Iraq). It was America who declared we do not have time for UN weapons inspectors to complete their work in Iraq (and who is now wondering why their own inspectors cannot find any trace of the weapons they were so sure were in Iraq). It was America whose knee-jerk anti-terrorism measures were copied item by item by Sharon's Israel, hence making peace in the Middle East more than ever unreachable (and, incidentally, leading to a huge and disturbing increase in anti-semitic violence in Britain and across Europe). (When I say 'America' I mean, of course, George W Bush, but you knew that.)

Remind me, why are we supposed to trust America as the world's policeman?

[dougo.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, the United States proved to the entire world that it will go on crazy bombing temper tantrums for little or no reason. "Don't make me angry... you wouldn't like me when I'm angry" seems to be the underlying message of the Bush Doctrine.

Ian M Banks

[dmsherwood53.livejournal.com]

Does anyone out there like Banksie's 'Culture' Novels. Their very relevant to today's America. Basically Bush and his cronies believe AMERICA is the Culture. A super powerful more evolved form of life with a missiomn to help the barbarian civilisations which must be brought up to its leval.
Its not very useful to point out the differance i.e The Culture is genuinely rational and has funny little habits like admitting when its wrong