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Debate:Is the Iraq War a success? (view source)
Revision as of 19:28, September 26, 2007
, 19:28, September 26, 2007→No: Luttwak
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''The importance of diplomacy is rooted in Iraq's sectarian civil war. The war in Iraq is not the United States against a single enemy but the United States interjecting itself among many enemies fighting each other. That war cannot be solved by military means. Even if the United States were to quell the violence in the short term, fighting would erupt again with an American withdrawal. Until there is a political compact among Iraqi parties, endorsed by neighbors and the international community, there will be no prospect for peace in Iraq.'' [https://www.afa.org/EdOp/edop_8-23-07.asp The U.N.'s Role In Iraq] By Carlos Pascual and Brian Cullin.
''The importance of diplomacy is rooted in Iraq's sectarian civil war. The war in Iraq is not the United States against a single enemy but the United States interjecting itself among many enemies fighting each other. That war cannot be solved by military means. Even if the United States were to quell the violence in the short term, fighting would erupt again with an American withdrawal. Until there is a political compact among Iraqi parties, endorsed by neighbors and the international community, there will be no prospect for peace in Iraq.'' [https://www.afa.org/EdOp/edop_8-23-07.asp The U.N.'s Role In Iraq] By Carlos Pascual and Brian Cullin.
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''Having failed in that worthy purpose, it has inadvertendly achieved something else that can serve US interests quite well: without wishing too, the US has activated rival forces inside Iraq and across the region -- the Sunni states viz the "Shia crescent" of Iran, Shia-Iraq, Syria and the Hezbollah of Lebanon. Because the Shia inside Iraq need US support, as do the Sunni states outside Iraq to contain the "Shia crescent", the US could now control both Iraq and much of the region with very little force and some competent diplomacy.<br><br>
''"Divide and rule" is the hostile depiction of such statecraft , and historically its goal was empire on the cheap.<br><br>
''Nobody wanted this, but US policy should recognize the new realities. Just by acting very naturally to safeguard our interests we will be balancing hostile forces against each other, achieving stability at a much lower cost in US blood and treasure. What past imperial statesmen strove for with much cunning and cynicism, the Bush Administration has engendered inadvertently. But the result is exactly he same, and it does make large US forces in place redundant, and even counter-productive.'' <br>[http://www.csis.org/media/csis/congress/ts070123luttwak.pdf The Remaining Options, pg. 4] Edward Luttwak.
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