Did the blind squirrel find a nut?

by Jim Babka

The research we are doing for the new version of TruthAboutWar.org is sobering. It colors our response to the fall of Saddam Hussein. We are, of course, delighted by the end of any tyranny. We celebrate the dawn of hope for the Iraqi people. The scenes from Iraq are heartening, even heartwarming, in their depiction of the human love of freedom. It is one of the great days in history, even if it turns out to be only a day.

Caution is warranted, even as we celebrate.

Our investigation is showing us just how incredibly inept politicians and governments are at prosecuting war and peace. Not just U.S. politicians and governments, but all politicians and governments everywhere, at all times. It should be clear to any serious student of history that governments are the most inept of all human institutions.

What then are we to make of today's success in Iraq?

Winning a war and toppling tyrants is not the same thing as bringing peace and freedom. War is a competition of governments versus governments, of the halt versus the lame. In war, a less incompetent state will usually beat a more incompetent one. This proves little in terms of government efficiency.

Peace and freedom, on the other hand, present different challenges from war. A government's fall does not ensure the dawn of peace. Where uniformed soldiers of the state lay down their arms, non-uniformed fanatics or disgruntled political gangsters may pick them up to employ as guerrillas, waging a long, slow, war of attrition, starting at precisely the point when peace seems certain. We do not expect that to happen in this case, but it is a distinct possibility—a cause for concern. Both Vietnam (for the United States) and Afghanistan (for the Soviets) showed how even the greatest powers can be impotent against such tactics, if pursued persistently.

It is also something to fear as our leaders consider new targets for intervention. Today's success may be followed by hubris, culminating in nemesis, and if that sounds Greek to you, try overconfidence leading to disaster.

Likewise, while most Iraqis are celebrating, former adherents of the Ba'ath Party are not. Neither are millions of Arabs in other countries who have never suffered under Saddam Hussein, but who have suffered under other dictators established, funded, and armed by our government. Add to these old U.S. inspired resentments the current humiliation by us of yet another Arab army, and you have a fertile seedbed for the birth of new terrorism. A defeated Iraqi state is not the same thing as a cooperative Arab people. Victory is at hand, but peace may not be.

The prospects for freedom face even greater obstacles. Governments may sometimes secure freedom, but they more often suppress it, even ours. So our leaders' intentions may be good, but will they prove sufficient to the task? Remember, this is no longer a war. This is no longer a less incompetent government versus a more-incompetent-government. Instead, this is our government attempting to do something that is alien to a government's nature. Governments are not about freedom. They are about force.

We cannot impose freedom on the Shia, the Sunnis, and the Kurds. These groups must grasp freedom for themselves. And if their reach exceeds their grasp, we may get the blame—no matter how much the Iraqi people are cheering America today. Remember the proverb, no good deed goes unpunished.

While we celebrate the end of Hussein and the happiness of the Iraqi people, we must also keep in mind who it is that will be trying to win the peace and bring freedom to that country—politicians and bureaucrats. Can our political leaders and government servants rise above the inherent natures of their professions, and break the historical cycle of state incompetence? We can hope, but it makes more sense to bet the odds. It hasn't worked in Afghanistan, and even if—against the odds—it does work in Iraq, that will not mean that it will also work in Syria, Libya, or Iran—the next targets on the list.

Finally, we must appreciate why our government proved less incompetent than that of Iraq. Our military and our weapons were better not because Americans are inherently superior to Iraqis, but because our greater freedom has made possible the wealth and technological innovations our government has just displayed on the battlefield.

Our freedom was the source of this victory, but sadly, our freedom may also be a casualty of it. Our politicians created the enemies we now fight. They inspired the terrorism they are now using as an excuse to curtail our freedom. The war we have just fought, and the wars our leaders are promising to start, impose financial costs that will retard our economy and expand our national debt. Our own freedom must inevitably suffer.

A broken clock is right twice a day, and sometimes a blind squirrel finds a nut. But if our government brings true freedom to Iraq, it will be against the trend of history, and will provide scant justification for continuing to overthrow tyrants in other countries and risking our freedom at home.

Jim Babka is president of the American Liberty Foundation, located in Alexandria, VA.

[top]