In the
wake of the bombing of
the U.N. office in
Baghdad, some
"terrorism
experts" (By the
way, how do you get to
be a terrorism expert?
Can you get a B.A. in
terrorism or do you just
have to appear on Fox
News?) have argued that
the U.S. invasion of
Iraq is a failure
because all it's doing
is attracting terrorists
to Iraq and generating
more hatred toward
America.
I have
no doubt that the U.S.
presence in Iraq is
attracting all sorts of
terrorists and Islamists
to oppose the U.S. I
also have no doubt that
politicians and
intellectuals in the
nearby Arab states are
rooting against America
in Iraq because they
want Arabs and the world
to believe that the
corrupt autocracies that
have so long dominated
Arab life, and failed to
deliver for their
people, are the best
anyone can hope for.
But I
totally disagree that
this is a sign that
everything is going
wrong in Iraq. The truth
is exactly the opposite.
We are
attracting all these
opponents to Iraq
because they understand
this war is The Big One.
They don't believe their
own propaganda. They
know this is not a war
for oil. They know this
is a war over ideas and
values and governance.
They know this war is
about Western powers,
helped by the U.N.,
coming into the heart of
their world to promote
more decent, open,
tolerant,
women-friendly,
pluralistic governments
by starting with Iraq
— a country that
contains all the main
strands of the region:
Shiites, Sunnis and
Kurds.
You'd
think from listening to
America's European and
Arab critics that we'd
upset some bucolic
native culture and
natural harmony in Iraq,
as if the Baath Party
were some colorful local
tribe out of National
Geographic. Alas, our
opponents in Iraq, and
their fellow travelers,
know otherwise. They
know they represent
various forms of clan
and gang rule, and
various forms of
religious and secular
totalitarianism — from
Talibanism to Baathism.
And they know that they
need external enemies to
thrive and justify
imposing their demented
visions.
In
short, America's
opponents know just
what's at stake in the
postwar struggle for
Iraq, which is why they
flock there: beat
America's ideas in Iraq
and you beat them out of
the whole region; lose
to America there, lose
everywhere.
One of
the most interesting
conversations I had in
Baghdad was with
Muhammed A. al-Da'mi, a
literature professor at
Baghdad University and
author of "Arabian
Mirrors and Western
Soothsayers." He
has spent a lifetime
studying the
interactions between
East and West.
"Cultures
can't be closed on
themselves for long
without paying a
price," he
explained. "But
ours has been a
vestigial and closed
culture for many years
now. The West needed us
in the past and now we
need it. This is the
circle of history.
Essentially [what you
are seeing here] is a
cultural collision. . .
. I am optimistic
insofar as I believe
that my country — and
I am a pan-Arab
nationalist — is going
to benefit from this
encounter with the more
advanced society, and we
are going pay at the
same time. . . . Your
experience in Iraq is
going to create two
reactions: one is
hypersensitivity, led by
the Islamists, and the
other is welcoming, led
by the secularists. [But
you have to understand]
that what you are doing
is a penetration of one
culture into another. If
you succeed here, Iraq
could change the habits
and customs of the
people in the whole
area."
So,
the terrorists get it.
Iraqi liberals get it.
The Bush team talks as
if it gets it, but it
doesn't act like it. The
Bush team tells us,
rightly, that this
nation-building project
is the equivalent of
Germany in 1945, and
yet, so far, it has
approached the postwar
in Iraq as if it's
Grenada in 1982.
We may
fail, but not because we
have attracted
terrorists who
understand what's at
stake in Iraq. We may
fail because of the
utter incompetence with
which the Pentagon
leadership has handled
the postwar. (We don't
even have enough
translators there, let
alone M.P.'s, and the
media network we've set
up there to talk to
Iraqis is so bad we'd be
better off buying ads on
Al Jazeera.) We may fail
because the Bush team
thinks it can fight The
Big One in the Middle
East — while cutting
taxes at home, shrinking
the U.S. Army, changing
the tax code to
encourage Americans to
buy gas-guzzling cars
that make us more
dependent on Mideast oil
and by gratuitously
alienating allies.
We may
fail because to win The
Big One, we need an
American public, and
allies, ready to pay any
price and bear any
burden, but we have a
president unable or
unwilling to summon
either.