I don’t think there’s much question that there’s been progress in Iraq. Some markets seem to be flourishing, American deaths are down. That phantasma-gory-a of suicide bombings one day after another may even be petering out. Hallelujah.
I remember a couple of years ago after the elections in Iraq, the purple-finger days, when a few of my leftwing friends and I were sitting around on the Upper West Side stunned by the news. It really did seem like burgeoning democracy there. Does this justify the war? we asked ourselves. More to the point: does the progress rationalize the U.S. policy of preemptively and violently determining that another society should go democratic?
We said No, and I still say No. I think most Americans would agree, this is a terrible policy, whether you call it unipolar or Wilsonian or visionary or elitist arrogance. (When will the neocons work on democracy in Jerusalem, where the U.N. confirms what I have seen: the Israelis have made "a mockery of religious freedom" by cordoning the holy sites) I can only imagine how many years it will be till Iraq has a functioning democracy, let alone a secular one…
That doesn’t mean that we should not celebrate what is happening in Iraq, and pull with all our hearts for more tranquility there, so that our troops can come home, civil order will be established, and maybe freedom of the press, too. Human freedom is a wonderful thing.
