Idealism in Iraq

Following the latest suicide bombing in Iraq, Iraq's interim Defence Minister, Hazim al-Shaalan, promised to crack down on militants with his own Iraqi forces.

"We will cut off their hands and behead them," he said.

That's so Old Iraq, as Rumsfeld might say, which is slightly worrying. But then, let's not impose our cultural values on the Iraqis. We should show sensitivity to their cultural tradition of beheading. (Speaking of Rumsfeld, it is a breath of fresh perspective to read truly awful, belligerent comments from a Secretary of Defense and realize that Rummy isn't the barbarian some make him out to be.) The only real crime is decapitation without representation--and we've liberated the Iraqis to decapitate only with the consent of the beheaded. Or something.

Turning Fallujah over to a former Baathist General this Spring was worrying. The Iraqi Defense Minister's bloodthirsty comment is another symptom of the broader problem. The Europeans' hesitancy to "impose values" on Iraq is more so. The war in Iraq--the whole War on Terror--is an effort to impose values, or, at least, to kill or discredit proponents of one set of values (Islamic fascism) while propping up another set (liberal democracy).

There are many problems--and many successes--in Iraq right now. I worry that a core problem is that the US is lowering the bar for success from liberty to mere security. Much tyranny can be justified in the name of peace and security. "They laid waste and made a desert, and called it peace". The US's problem in Iraq may be not too much idealism, but too little.