Tuesday, February 04, 2003

Matthew Parris in a piece being linked all over the place makes a feeble attempt to justify an antiwar position:


I am not afraid that this war will fail. I am afraid that it will succeed.


I am afraid that it will prove to be the first in an indefinite series of American interventions. I am afraid that it is the beginning of a new empire: an empire that I am afraid Britain may have little choice but to join.

Maybe, but it couldn't be any worse that our interventions over the past 50 years, most of which failed because we settled for less than victory. Korea is a good example.


He assumes the lie that the U.S. wants an empire, showing how little he really understands America. What he fails to understand is that, if we go into Iraq, we're more likely to screw up the nationbuilding phase by pulling out too soon, than we are to create a colony. Where is our Empire? Every country we've ever conquered has been given economic aid, helpd to establish its own democracy and then let go. Some of them haven't done well for themselves, but most have.

I think that Bush knows from his father's experience that you can't just defeat somebody and expect him to crawl off and be deposed. I wouldn't support any war that promised to end like the first Gulf war. Tony Blair knows this and so do the rest of the Gang of 8, 9 if you count Ireland. Most of them know Stalinism firsthand, and they know what trusting totalitarians leads to. We'll probably leave the rebuilding phase to the U.N. Then we'll see how much good the U.N. is at solving problems. Look at what it has done for the Palastinians.

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