[Written<\/p>\n
when the war appeared to be going very badly for the US, at least according to<\/p>\n
the pundits on TV. …]<\/p>\n
Passions are running high over the war<\/b>, as<\/p>\n
they should. Invading Iraq may turn out to be a disastrous decision leading to<\/p>\n
massive suffering and death in the Middle East and permanent damage to our own<\/p>\n
republic. Yet it is important not to let the passionate seriousness of the issue<\/p>\n
ruin our national political culture. Perhaps we ought to keep these points in<\/p>\n
mind:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
differences to be of enormous moral significance. Matters of life and death often<\/i><\/p>\n
divide participants in democratic political life. In such cases, it is necessary<\/p>\n
both to fight passionately for what one believes and to preserve the political<\/p>\n
system within which we settle all our debates. Our domestic political opponents<\/p>\n
are in a permanent relationship with us, almost like a marriage with no possibility<\/p>\n
of divorce. If the level of animosity gets too high, the damage can be serious.<\/li>\n
decision to invade Iraq may turn out to have been wise or exceptionally foolhardy,<\/p>\n
but it was a judgment-call. Weighing all the relevant factors—risks and potential<\/p>\n
benefits to ourselves, the Iraqis, the region, our relationships with allies,<\/p>\n
and the international system—it was possible to reach a range of conclusions.<\/p>\n
Perhaps those who had access to classified information should have predicted the<\/p>\n
first week of war better than they did. But at least on the basis of public information,<\/p>\n
one could make a case for the invasion ten days ago. I did not think the case<\/p>\n
was persuasive, but it was not lunatic. <\/li>\n
money for George Bush, Dick Cheney, or their friends in the oil industry. These<\/p>\n
men already have plenty of money and myriad opportunities to get much richer after<\/p>\n
they leave the government. I am certain that they are concerned with one self-interested<\/p>\n
goal (as well, perhaps, as altruistic ends). Their selfish goal is to be perceived<\/p>\n
as doing a good job running the country, both in the short-term, to help them<\/p>\n
get re-elected, and in the long-term, to make themselves into American heros.<\/p>\n
If the war turns out badly in the end, but the US energy industry makes some profits<\/p>\n
on Iraqi oil, this will not be in Bush and Cheney’s self-interest, nor will they<\/p>\n
see it as a good outcome. The war may be about oil and economics, but only in<\/p>\n
the sense that cheap oil is good for the whole US economy (which means that we<\/p>\n
are all morally implicated). The effect on oil companies is not a major consideration<\/p>\n
for Bush and Cheney.<\/li>\n
disastrous. I don’t think they knew that—nor indeed do we know today what<\/p>\n
the final outcome will be. Knowledge is justified true belief. Strong anti-war<\/p>\n
activists may have had a true belief, but it wasn’t justified. I remember having<\/p>\n
dinner with some conservative men who were certain that Bill Clinton was committing<\/p>\n
adultery while president. Their whole view of liberalism told them that this must<\/p>\n
be the case. When the Monica Lewinsky story broke, it turned out that they were<\/p>\n
correct. But that doesn’t mean that they knew <\/i>anything about Clinton’s<\/p>\n
marriage. They just applied an ideological schema that gave them the right answer<\/p>\n
in this particular case. When this happens, it’s important to remain modest and<\/p>\n
recognize that one is not necessarily wiser than anyone else.<\/li>\n
a responsibility to think about the future, not merely assess blame for past decisions.<\/p>\n
The anti-war movement faces a tough question: What to do now? Even if the war<\/p>\n
was a terrible mistake, it seems to me that an armistice would be morally and<\/p>\n
practically disastrous. It’s easy to criticize, but our real civic duty is to<\/p>\n
come up with a range of worthy policies that could be adopted today or tomorrow.<\/p>\n
I can see only one policy that makes sense, which is to seek the unconditional<\/p>\n
surrender of the Iraqi government. But I would welcome and admire sensible alternatives.<\/li>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[Written when the war appeared to be going very badly for the US, at least according to the pundits on TV. …] Passions are running high over the war, as they should. Invading Iraq may turn out to be a disastrous decision leading to massive suffering and death in the Middle East and permanent damage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iraq-and-democratic-theory"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}