Most of us are concerned about the war in Iraq. Our country has invested billlions in Iraq. This war has become the centerpiece of the larger war on terrorism, a war which is invisible to most of us. It seems that most Americans are opposed our occupation of Iraq. However, when I look at future presidents, I don't even consider a candidate's opinion on the war. Why? I simply don't believe that anyone in the running would be able to fulfill a promise to pull us out & anyone who thinks so is deluded.
That aside, we are failing in Iraq. The reason we want to pull out of Iraq and one of the biggest reason's we're failing are really the same. The reason many people want to pull out of Iraq is because the war makes them care about something external to their lives & their rights. America is struggling against becoming valuless. Postmodern thought is turning freedom into hedonism, and it will be hedonism that eventually causes us to quit Iraq and the larger war against the Wahabists, yet they will continue.
Why? They simply care about their cause more than we do. As our cause becomes nothing more than more nakedness on TV, a newer cell phone, and the right to live an immoral life while calling it "a different choice", and, further, if that's all we export as the benefit of freedom, we will not have the heart to continue to rise to the moral challenge, while they will, at the same time, rage harder against us. Once we as a nation come to tolerate anything, being passionate for any cause in the face of any other cause will be impossible, and those who are willing to die for their intolerance only have to wait until our tolerance for everything creates apathy for all of those same things.
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i think we're scared to admit iraq is a failure because we have this stupid idea that the world should be a democracy. the reason why there's so many problems is that people in iraq have never known what to do in a democracy and to say that saadam hussein is no longer in power is like asking a priest what to do if God doesnt exist. these things take time and its taken so much time we just want these things to end
Well, that is an interesting facet to the problem with Iraq. I have had dialogue both with middle easterners and with western missionaries who have worked in the east. Many from eastern cultures view freedom as the 'uncertain' period between dictators. Why? Most of us have no idea what to do when faced with big decisions & it is comforting to know that there is someone else to make these for us--as long as they make the right ones. In general, they know and expect that someone will take power & just want to know who that person is so they can realign. That said, it can't be just anyone--Chalabi didn't work out.
In Iraq we went in and destroyed not only the regime in power, but also attempted the destruction of the underlying social infrastructure which had been in place for thousands of years. Saddam, on the other hand, had begun to erode some of the preexisting social barriers and we caused these to be reerected in backlash to our policies--or lack thereof. We can win only by practicing international liberalism & since this culture is so far from postmodern America, it is unlikely that we will be able to make that leap in strategy.