Dateline: Home Study

I’m enjoying a little of Spring Break this week, and putting off some course work I really need to do, but I also felt a need to catch up on some reading. A couple of articles seem to indicate that things in Iraq are not as bad as the media makes them out to be. No surprise, based on the other sources of information I have.

Iraq Withdrawal: A Tragedy in Slow Motion by Colonel Norvell B. De Atkine, USA (Ret), US Naval Institute Proceedings, March 2006, V131 N3 P12.

Basic argument is that withdrawing from Iraq at this time is not an option. The US is needed to stabilize not only Iraq, but also the Middle East. He also discusses the possibility of dividing Iraq into separate countries and says that is not an option. Out right civil war is unlikely, but insurgencies will continues. Arguments about legitimate government need to first define legitimate. On of the major points he makes, and I have to agree with, is that the US does not understand the Middle Eastern way of war.

I find it hard to believe that people are even thinking of dividing Iraq into three countries. Did we not learn anything from the likes of Yugoslavia? Part of the problem now is, in my opinion, the way the Middle East was carved up long ago, further divisions would likely only create greater feelings of divisiveness.

The Paradox of International Action, Francis Fukuyama, The American Interest, V1 N3 P7.

One point: The United Nations is a distraction to both the left and the right. The UN is not capable of enforcing any of its resolutions and its legitimacy is even questionable at times. Fukuyama seems to be saying that coalitions of the willing may well be the wave of the future in conjunction with other, perhaps more complex international organizations. He points out that we have many international standards which were developed without the UN.

I am also pretty impressed with The American Interest, even though it is only in its third issue. The articles are well-written, enjoyable, and informative. Many of them are also thought provoking and seem to be less biased than many other journals. Of course “unbiased” really means I agree with their bias.

Security Council Waivers on Taking Tehran to Task, by Cara Anne Robbins and Guy Chazan. Wall Street Journal, 15 March 2006, Vol. CCXLVII No. 61 p. A6.

See Fukuyama above. The United Nations is incapable of doing anything with Iran so it is reluctant to try and do anything. Again, coalitions created off-line will most likely be root of solution to the difficulty. The US, because it has little to no trade with Iran, has little to exercise as far as economic sanctions. Because of the oil exported to Europe, it is not clear what the European countries will be willing to do. Again, the UN is ineffective in many matters of security.