Monday, March 22, 2004
The northern perspective, one year on
While I know that our President is chiding some Americans for worrying about the opinion of foreigners, I think this article by Paul Heinbecker, the former Canadian representative to the United Nations, really hits a couple of very cogent points.
The most telling paragraph to me follows, italics mine:
"The most obvious consequence is that the United States and its posse are caught in a morass. They cannot end the occupation precipitously without triggering a civil war and undoing the good they have done in removing Saddam Hussein. They cannot stay in Iraq without losing more soldiers and more money. Echoes of Vietnam. Meanwhile, the Iraqi toll also rises. As one Arab ambassador at the United Nations put it, the Americans have swallowed a razor and nothing they do now will be painless or cost-free."
Worth a read indeed.
One last note I thought of while pondering this piece. In the States it seems we are most feverishly gripped by the morality of our policy actions--was the war right or was it wrong? I would only offer that I can't think of a single instance where really sound policy was also immoral policy. It's only when one gets into justifying one's actions regarding bad, unsuccessful policy does one have to run the morality gauntlet.
While I know that our President is chiding some Americans for worrying about the opinion of foreigners, I think this article by Paul Heinbecker, the former Canadian representative to the United Nations, really hits a couple of very cogent points.
The most telling paragraph to me follows, italics mine:
"The most obvious consequence is that the United States and its posse are caught in a morass. They cannot end the occupation precipitously without triggering a civil war and undoing the good they have done in removing Saddam Hussein. They cannot stay in Iraq without losing more soldiers and more money. Echoes of Vietnam. Meanwhile, the Iraqi toll also rises. As one Arab ambassador at the United Nations put it, the Americans have swallowed a razor and nothing they do now will be painless or cost-free."
Worth a read indeed.
One last note I thought of while pondering this piece. In the States it seems we are most feverishly gripped by the morality of our policy actions--was the war right or was it wrong? I would only offer that I can't think of a single instance where really sound policy was also immoral policy. It's only when one gets into justifying one's actions regarding bad, unsuccessful policy does one have to run the morality gauntlet.
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