NP War and Wisdom

[Terrance]

Now that Powell (the voice of reason, the soldier dove in the midst of
civilian chicken hawks) has gone public as a hawk, now that the smoking
gun nonsense has proven a smoke screen, now that the US has presented
the evidence, the UN inspectors have demonstrated that the inspections
are futile, now that the  German government has been exposed as a liar,
the French as a powerplaying loser, the US editorials turn to Reagan and
Stormin Norman to argue containment? And the example is Quadafi?
Quadafi? 


This is the post-Reagan world. The post-OPEC world. If Quadafi acted up
today he would be smashed into a hole in a few hours. The situation is
different. Smashing Quadafi then would have been successful only in
smashing Quadafi. As Middle East policy, as oil-economics policy it
would have been a disaster. 

Remember, from Nixon to Reagan, the US administrations, while they
consistently opposed higher oil prices and the strangle hold the
producers had on the world economy, did little to force oil prices down
and held back the wrath of the United States when it came to assholes
like Qudafi because it was wise, prudent, the best option at the time.
But times change. 

While there are still a few old timers that argue the Middle East Domino
theory (knock off Iraq and Iran will look weak and falter. Or,  install
something less than the kind of government that the Middle East has
produced on its own (tyrants, bullies, cut throat usurpers and false
kings and holy hell raisers) and the stable regimes like Saudi Arabia
will burst into revolutionary blaze, radical anti-Western Islamic
fundamentalism will gain more power and spread and so on......but this
theory is out of date. Besides, Saddam is no Quadafi. Iraq is no Libya.
Korea is not Iraq. Iraq is not Iran.  The historical comparisons make
little sense when we look at the history. But, editorials and op-eds are
not history, they are not policy papers, they are simply rants and so
they are perfectly suited to our discussion here on Iraq-L.