Peter F. Schaefer: What Might Have Been in Iraq

[Peter F. Schaefer is a researcher and writer for the Atlas Economic Research Foundation who last year completed a study on U.S. pre-occupation planning in Japan. Presently he heads the GlobaLand Group, which registers informal property in poor countries.]

No matter the outcome in Iraq and Afghanistan, when the dust settles the United States will remain the world’s only superpower. And though the American people may be tired of overseas wars now, the U.S. military will undoubtedly become involved in future interventions. When that time comes, we will need to do better. Although history has much to teach us, we seem to lose its lessons each time we go forward with the next episode. In Iraq, we have only recently moved from a strategy of killing the bad guys to one of protecting the good guys. Why did it take more than four years to relearn this lesson?

The National Archives recently declassified a secret memo that had been prepared for FDR’s Secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson, titled “Observations on Post Hostilities Policy Toward Japan.” On top of the memo is a note added by one of Stimson’s staff saying that the secretary called it “a remarkably good paper” and urged that other officials read it. More than “remarkably good,” it is remarkably prescient, even 65 years after it was drafted.

Had U.S. decision makers read it before invading Iraq, the present mess might well have been different.

[Click on the SOURCE link to read the memo.]