Jul 17, 2004
Iraq, Then and Now
[cross-posted at Austro-Athenian Empire]
Before the fall of communism, Republicans were fond of pointing out that people were risking their lives to get out of communist countries, and risking their lives to get in to capitalist countries. This, they insisted, was all one needed to know in order to evaluate the respective merits of the two systems.
Interestingly, the Republicans have been remarkably slow to appeal to that test lately -- perhaps because this time the results would not favour their position.
As Lew Rockwell points out, in the days of Saddam Hussein"people from all over the region wanted to come to Iraq"; by contrast, under the American puppet régime"those who come are there for jihad, while the flow otherwise runs in the opposite direction."
And that's no surprise. Iraq under Hussein was one of the most liberal societies in the Arab world. Of course that isn't saying much, and it's quite consistent with the undeniable truth that Hussein was a murderous, dictatorial thug. The fact that most Iraqis were better off under that murderous, dictatorial thug than they are under the American occupation is a shameful indictment of U.S. foreign policy.
Those of a Panglossian disposition may insist that Iraq's current wretched condition is merely temporary, a result of the war, and that in a short while, once the last pockets of resistance have been stamped out, it will become a shining, free, prosperous oasis to which immigrants will eagerly flow. Soviet apologists were saying the same thing about Russia for seventy years.
But what is the plan for achieving this miracle? As La Boétie and Hume have taught us, no ruler can maintain power by force alone. And as Rockwell reminds us, Hussein didn't. But the U.S. is trying to. Only failure can result.
Charles Dunoyer began his career as a dissident journalist bitterly attacking the reigning monarchy in France. After its overthrow, the excesses of its republican and imperial successors eventually led him to call for the monarchy's restoration. I used to attribute this to a weakening of Dunoyer's libertarian principles, and to some extent I still think it was. But I understand how he felt.
Before the fall of communism, Republicans were fond of pointing out that people were risking their lives to get out of communist countries, and risking their lives to get in to capitalist countries. This, they insisted, was all one needed to know in order to evaluate the respective merits of the two systems.
Interestingly, the Republicans have been remarkably slow to appeal to that test lately -- perhaps because this time the results would not favour their position.
As Lew Rockwell points out, in the days of Saddam Hussein"people from all over the region wanted to come to Iraq"; by contrast, under the American puppet régime"those who come are there for jihad, while the flow otherwise runs in the opposite direction."
And that's no surprise. Iraq under Hussein was one of the most liberal societies in the Arab world. Of course that isn't saying much, and it's quite consistent with the undeniable truth that Hussein was a murderous, dictatorial thug. The fact that most Iraqis were better off under that murderous, dictatorial thug than they are under the American occupation is a shameful indictment of U.S. foreign policy.
Those of a Panglossian disposition may insist that Iraq's current wretched condition is merely temporary, a result of the war, and that in a short while, once the last pockets of resistance have been stamped out, it will become a shining, free, prosperous oasis to which immigrants will eagerly flow. Soviet apologists were saying the same thing about Russia for seventy years.
But what is the plan for achieving this miracle? As La Boétie and Hume have taught us, no ruler can maintain power by force alone. And as Rockwell reminds us, Hussein didn't. But the U.S. is trying to. Only failure can result.
Charles Dunoyer began his career as a dissident journalist bitterly attacking the reigning monarchy in France. After its overthrow, the excesses of its republican and imperial successors eventually led him to call for the monarchy's restoration. I used to attribute this to a weakening of Dunoyer's libertarian principles, and to some extent I still think it was. But I understand how he felt.