Larry Beinhart and the moral conundrum that is Iraq

larry is writing at the huffpo...

There is a great moral conundrum in the Iraq situation.

The pro-war position that we cannot abandon the mess we've made does have great certain moral authority. There are now millions upon millions of Iraqis whose lives have been ruined in this war and millions upon millions more whose lives continue to be at risk due to the chaos that was unleashed by the war and during the time that America has been in charge of the country.

To abandon them and fail to establish a secure and decent level of civilization is reprehensible.

[...]

According to both the Army's old and new counter-insurgency manuals, it takes 40 troops per 1,000 members of the civilian population. Iraq has 26 million people. That means 670,000 troops. Not just for three months, or six months, or a year. Insurgencies and civil wars go on for a long, long time. Five years if we're very lucky. Ten years is reasonable.

[...]

[T]here are a lot of people who supported the war. Lots and lots of them.
They should go. George Bush likes wearing uniforms. Let him march in Baghdad. We might say that Dick Cheney is old and feeble, but he can certainly do secret administrative duties from an undisclosed location in Iraq. John McCain can run the POW camps. Hillary Clinton, who voted for the war, can serve, as an example to women. John Kerry, who promised to fight the same war better and smarter, and who voted for it, can serve. I would pay good money to see Bill Kristol and Paul Wolfowitz in uniform. Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity would make great MPs, or failing that, do great at KP, or digging latrines.

unfortunately, i agree... there IS a moral conundrum... but, besides the sheer number of military personnel required to unscrew the light bulb AND the nasty problem of who those people would be, we also have to face the fact that it is our VERY PRESENCE that's creating a great deal of the violence... they don't want us there and, for god's sake, who can blame them...? using the war supporters to staff the war for the duration may be a cute idea, but, as beinhart surely would admit, totally impractical and unrealistic...

if the u.s. was able to take the high road, to admit that going into iraq was an extremely bad idea, that we've screwed the pooch, not once, but dozens of times, we could consider calling a global conference of nations interested in middle east peace, not just peace for iraq, but for the israeli-palestine mess as well... these nations would participate based on interest and sincerity of intent, and would not be included or excluded based on membership or non-membership in the "axis of evil" and, without question, would include israel, palestine, and iraq, and their respective religious leaders... it would be a long, hard diplomatic slog, probably lasting several years, but, if cease fires could be negotiated on all sides for the interim, maybe something worthwhile could come out of this potential regional conflagration...

the myth that's been perpetrated by the bush administration and swallowed by everyone, hook, line and sinker is that, as a country, we are alone and isolated... we may be, but that's only because bushco has decreed it to be so...

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