The Iraq Civil War and American Foreign Policy
Don Quixote at BookWorm Room on Sep 24 2006 at 8:03 am | Filed under: Feature Article, Iraq
Latest word is that over 100 Iraqis per day are dying violent deaths in Iraq. To my untrained eye, Iraqis appear to be killing Iraqis at an increasing rate and American troops are trying and failing to keep the peace. Somehow, America will be blamed. And, in truth, America has not been able to fill the power vacuum that resulted from their invasion. If this is not a civil war, it will do until one comes along.
One popular red-white-and-blue liberal bumper sticker says “These colors don’t run . . . the world.” It does seem like we do make a mess of things when we try to. So, is there a Civil War going on in Iraq, and what, if anything, can we do about it? One reason I opposed going into Iraq is that we had no idea how we were going to get out. We still don’t. We’ve had some interesting exchanges in the Bookwormroom about where we go from here in Iraq. But perhaps the more important question is how can American foreign policy be made more effective. We are the last remaining superpower, yet seem entirely unable to translate that power into success in the rest of the world. This goes far beyond the Middle East. It covers everything from our failure to win allies in the United Nations and in the rest of the world generally to our mammoth and ever increasing trade deficit (caused in part by our inability to sell our goods abroad).
Iraqis, liberal, Middle East, United Nations
