Bhaskar Dasgupta: Bring the troops back home ... Brave Departure or Shameful Flight?
[Dr. Bhaskar Dasgupta works in the city of London in various capacities in the financial sector. He has worked and travelled widely around the world. He has a BSc in Mathematics, an MBA in Finance & IT, a PhD in Financial Modelling and is working on his second PhD in International Relations and Terrorism. ]
Have you read Michael Moore’s article on www.michaelmoore.com recently, where he says, the Americans need to cut and run, and that it’s the brave thing to do. He suggests that the Americans get out now, then apologise to the US troops and finally help the Iraqi’s rebuild. So, if I might further simplify his argument, it will be something like this: “Ah! Sod it, I don’t like this game any more because I am getting my rear regularly kicked, I am going home and just to show that I am so good, I will leave my ball with you”. But life is not a ball game and nations cannot simply withdraw from wars without thinking it through.
I wrote about the situation in Iraq. Ok, so I am being typically British and just calling it a “situation”, which is the understatement of the year. But what next? The Iraq Study Group was setup in the USA which is supposed to come up with magic dust to be sprinkled over the “situation” and then another flight will be taken by the great President and a big banner will be strung over the Potomac saying: “Mission Accomplished, Version 1.1”. Not so fast, guys, not so fast. I am not going to evaluate the various options, but would like to look at this situation from a slightly different perspective, namely that of how the British Empire withdrew. For good or for worse, the way the British withdrew from their empire in a matter of years is quite interesting and full of lessons.
As it so happens, I managed to get my hands on a book ‘Shameful Flight’ by Stanley Wolpert (ISBN: 0195151984). It is a book about the Partition of India, and concentrates on the time immediately before and after the Partition of India. The author has spent inordinate amounts of time trawling through the dusty shelves of the India Office and other archives. He spoke to so many different stakeholders, that this book definitely does look at that event with sharper eyes. And yes, indeed, the death of the estimated 1-2 million people in the Partition riots, migration and assorted mayhem can be easily laid on the doors of the British, and how they withdrew from the Sub Continent. Why shameful? Because the British could have done much better during this time, these 1-2 million dead were avoidable deaths, and that is what makes the partition unforgivable, and if not forgivable, then shameful in the extreme. Stanley Wolpert takes us through each of the fateful steps that the major protagonists took which lead to the disaster of Partition and points out where they could have done better.
The author talks about how the then giants, who strode the world like Jinnah, Gandhi, Nehru, Mountbatten, Sardar Patel, Atlee, Ambedkar, Stafford Cripps etc. etc., showed misjudgement, lack of imagination, pettiness, and frankly disappointing behaviour. Take Mountbatten, a war hero, who was so interested in taking up his next career step, that he pushed, prodded, hid, negotiated, sold, bought, confused and compared his way to a situation that everybody said was a disaster and left a situation which was horrible. Take a look at Jinnah, who forced a situation with Pakistan and managed to leave a state, which is perilously close to being a failed state (with nuclear weapons), Nehru with his socialist elitist ambitious thinking which caused severe dislocations across the political structures and left India with structural problems, Gandhi, who was unable to think outside his “Hindu” framework, Ambedkar, whose one faceted perspective on life in general through the lens of “untouchability” made him commit mistakes, which could have been avoided, and so on and so forth. The situation demanded giants and all who were present were men who were far too human.
I seriously shouldn’t blame them, after all, at that time they were thinking that they were doing the best thing for themselves, the nation, the states and their communities and hindsight is always 20/20. But sixty years on, when one reads a book like ‘Shameful Flight’, one wonders whether this can give us some advice? Would we again read a similar book fifty years from now? Will people then peer into a book which says, “Shameful Flight from Iraq” and wonder like I am wondering?
What will people think of the protagonists? I have expressed my opinions about President George Bush and his bunch of merry men already and the same with Tony Blair, hence will not waste scarce electronic real estate on them. But do you seriously think that history will judge the others any better? President Ahmedinijad of Iran, President Bashar Assad of Syria, President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, King Hussein of Jordan, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq, Moqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the Mahdi Army and the two heads of the Kurds Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani Head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and currently Iraq’s interim President, nobody will come out of this mess with a clear judgement or conscience.
So what will the situation be fifty years from now? It is a fair chance that there will not be a united Iraq at all. It would have long broken down into three or possibly four parts. And the birth pangs are really pangs, currently, the death toll is running at about 100-150 people per day. I would expect that the overall death toll of Iraqis starting from Gulf War I and for another fifty years will be well near the ten million number. The previous Iraqi-Iranian war will look like a kindergarten squabble when Iraq implodes. The Shia-Sunni divide will deepen, and why does anybody expect the outside, non-Muslim world not to egg this on? Surely, it makes perfect sense to do this (Israel needs to be handled, but giving over Sheba Farms and the Golan Heights is a simple and cheap enough solution). Keep them divided and fighting against each other, and they won’t have much to say about or do with the outside world.
And who do you think would have the imagination, the willpower, the strength of character to stop this? You have seen the example of what happened to British India, what do you think will happen to Iraq? Who, amongst the current crop of presidents, prime ministers, tyrants, incompetents, morons, idiots, fanatics, autocrats, petty princes and kings is capable of doing anything? Nobody, and frankly, don’t even look at the USA. On one hand, you have President Bush, and on the other hand, you have Michael Moore. Doesn’t Michael Moore realise that by asking the troops to be brought home earlier, he is becoming part of the problem? Fifty years hence, people will read this statement, look at the result of withdrawal of troops – the implosion of Iraq and a bloody civil war - and then wonder why did anybody listen to Michael Moore?
Don’t do it, President Bush and Prime Minister Blair. Do not withdraw the troops. Learn from history, because people who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Avoid what happened with British India. And if nothing else think about your honour. How would you like your memory and that of your nation to be accused of engaging in a Shameful Flight? Not once but twice?
All this to be taken with a grain of salt!
Read entire article at http://piquancy.blogspot.com
Have you read Michael Moore’s article on www.michaelmoore.com recently, where he says, the Americans need to cut and run, and that it’s the brave thing to do. He suggests that the Americans get out now, then apologise to the US troops and finally help the Iraqi’s rebuild. So, if I might further simplify his argument, it will be something like this: “Ah! Sod it, I don’t like this game any more because I am getting my rear regularly kicked, I am going home and just to show that I am so good, I will leave my ball with you”. But life is not a ball game and nations cannot simply withdraw from wars without thinking it through.
I wrote about the situation in Iraq. Ok, so I am being typically British and just calling it a “situation”, which is the understatement of the year. But what next? The Iraq Study Group was setup in the USA which is supposed to come up with magic dust to be sprinkled over the “situation” and then another flight will be taken by the great President and a big banner will be strung over the Potomac saying: “Mission Accomplished, Version 1.1”. Not so fast, guys, not so fast. I am not going to evaluate the various options, but would like to look at this situation from a slightly different perspective, namely that of how the British Empire withdrew. For good or for worse, the way the British withdrew from their empire in a matter of years is quite interesting and full of lessons.
As it so happens, I managed to get my hands on a book ‘Shameful Flight’ by Stanley Wolpert (ISBN: 0195151984). It is a book about the Partition of India, and concentrates on the time immediately before and after the Partition of India. The author has spent inordinate amounts of time trawling through the dusty shelves of the India Office and other archives. He spoke to so many different stakeholders, that this book definitely does look at that event with sharper eyes. And yes, indeed, the death of the estimated 1-2 million people in the Partition riots, migration and assorted mayhem can be easily laid on the doors of the British, and how they withdrew from the Sub Continent. Why shameful? Because the British could have done much better during this time, these 1-2 million dead were avoidable deaths, and that is what makes the partition unforgivable, and if not forgivable, then shameful in the extreme. Stanley Wolpert takes us through each of the fateful steps that the major protagonists took which lead to the disaster of Partition and points out where they could have done better.
The author talks about how the then giants, who strode the world like Jinnah, Gandhi, Nehru, Mountbatten, Sardar Patel, Atlee, Ambedkar, Stafford Cripps etc. etc., showed misjudgement, lack of imagination, pettiness, and frankly disappointing behaviour. Take Mountbatten, a war hero, who was so interested in taking up his next career step, that he pushed, prodded, hid, negotiated, sold, bought, confused and compared his way to a situation that everybody said was a disaster and left a situation which was horrible. Take a look at Jinnah, who forced a situation with Pakistan and managed to leave a state, which is perilously close to being a failed state (with nuclear weapons), Nehru with his socialist elitist ambitious thinking which caused severe dislocations across the political structures and left India with structural problems, Gandhi, who was unable to think outside his “Hindu” framework, Ambedkar, whose one faceted perspective on life in general through the lens of “untouchability” made him commit mistakes, which could have been avoided, and so on and so forth. The situation demanded giants and all who were present were men who were far too human.
I seriously shouldn’t blame them, after all, at that time they were thinking that they were doing the best thing for themselves, the nation, the states and their communities and hindsight is always 20/20. But sixty years on, when one reads a book like ‘Shameful Flight’, one wonders whether this can give us some advice? Would we again read a similar book fifty years from now? Will people then peer into a book which says, “Shameful Flight from Iraq” and wonder like I am wondering?
What will people think of the protagonists? I have expressed my opinions about President George Bush and his bunch of merry men already and the same with Tony Blair, hence will not waste scarce electronic real estate on them. But do you seriously think that history will judge the others any better? President Ahmedinijad of Iran, President Bashar Assad of Syria, President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, King Hussein of Jordan, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq, Moqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the Mahdi Army and the two heads of the Kurds Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani Head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and currently Iraq’s interim President, nobody will come out of this mess with a clear judgement or conscience.
So what will the situation be fifty years from now? It is a fair chance that there will not be a united Iraq at all. It would have long broken down into three or possibly four parts. And the birth pangs are really pangs, currently, the death toll is running at about 100-150 people per day. I would expect that the overall death toll of Iraqis starting from Gulf War I and for another fifty years will be well near the ten million number. The previous Iraqi-Iranian war will look like a kindergarten squabble when Iraq implodes. The Shia-Sunni divide will deepen, and why does anybody expect the outside, non-Muslim world not to egg this on? Surely, it makes perfect sense to do this (Israel needs to be handled, but giving over Sheba Farms and the Golan Heights is a simple and cheap enough solution). Keep them divided and fighting against each other, and they won’t have much to say about or do with the outside world.
And who do you think would have the imagination, the willpower, the strength of character to stop this? You have seen the example of what happened to British India, what do you think will happen to Iraq? Who, amongst the current crop of presidents, prime ministers, tyrants, incompetents, morons, idiots, fanatics, autocrats, petty princes and kings is capable of doing anything? Nobody, and frankly, don’t even look at the USA. On one hand, you have President Bush, and on the other hand, you have Michael Moore. Doesn’t Michael Moore realise that by asking the troops to be brought home earlier, he is becoming part of the problem? Fifty years hence, people will read this statement, look at the result of withdrawal of troops – the implosion of Iraq and a bloody civil war - and then wonder why did anybody listen to Michael Moore?
Don’t do it, President Bush and Prime Minister Blair. Do not withdraw the troops. Learn from history, because people who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Avoid what happened with British India. And if nothing else think about your honour. How would you like your memory and that of your nation to be accused of engaging in a Shameful Flight? Not once but twice?
All this to be taken with a grain of salt!