More Imperialism
Certainly, one of the main criticisms of the US intervention in Iraq has been that not enough troops were sent to occupy the country and oversee the transition from Baathist fascism to some sort of democratic state. In a country of 20 million people, 160,000 troops just does not cut the mustard. In this sense, the US could have benefited from more imperialism. As Geoffrey Wheatcroft says here, the Euston group should not be ashamed to openly advocate benign Western imperialism in place of native dictatorships.
Perhaps some form of imperial occupation is necessary in the short term, in order to ensure that the country under Western jurisdiction comes out in the end with the proper institutions, constitution, infrastructure and welfare appartus necessary for a democratic society to function? I recently read Niall Fergusons excellent book Colossus, in which he argues that America need to become more imperialist, not less, if it wants to succeed in its mission to spread liberty throughout the world.
Think about it - if the US had sent 500,000 troops to Iraq and imposed martial law straight after the destruction of Saddams regime, thus preserving much of the Iraqi state and infrastructure, and had not abolished completly the Iraqi armed forces - the country would arguably be in much better shape than it is today. The insurgency would not have had a massive influx of Iraqi army recruits, it would not have had access to old Iraqi army caches of weapons and explosives, the army could have been used to guard the borders against infiltration by foreign jihadist forces etc.
When Norman Geras says in his response to Wheatcroft that:
The support for the aforementioned interventions by the people Wheatcroft is talking about was based on human rights and just war considerations, not on empire-building ones. Indeed, the very principles informing that support rule out support for imperialism, even a putatively 'progressive' imperialism. Self-determination and political independence for all peoples is one of the basic rights we Eustonians defend.
Self determination and political independence is very hard for a nation to acheive when it is infested with terrorists and fascists, the existence of which could have been prevented by a more headstrong imperial approach from the start.
-posted by Adam
