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Friday, July 18, 2003
posted by gbarto at 4:06 AM:
Marcus has a lengthy consideration of whether we should rescue Africa. His answer is to note that there is a difference between charity of the strong and the US becoming the world's policeman.I'll surprise him by agreeing. It is worth noting - as Marcus does - that I am hardly a neo-isolationist. And I am not entirely averse to the phrase noblesse oblige. But I must ask, qu'est-ce qu'elle oblige - ou exige ? - what does it obligate one to, even require? Does it require watching our men dragged through the streets à la Mogadishu? Does it necessitate occupation forces to keep long-warring tribes separate, even if we're caught between their arrows, spears and machine-gun fire? It depends.
I defend the Iraq war on humanitarian grounds, it is true, but not purely humanitarian grounds. I think it ought be enough for the classic leftist to know that we had ousted a man who tyrannized his people, to know the war was just. But whether it was just and whether we wished to get involved are two different issues. We attacked Iraq because it was an atrocious regime that had declared itself inimical to our interests and paid blood money to murder our friends and allies in Israel as well as threatening the stability of an oil rich region. We had interests there that made the regime change a really good thing to do, and given the choice as to how to eliminate Saddam, trying to liberate the people rather than merely impose our own man reflected our desire to make the interests of the US and the Iraqi people coincide. This is a balance we ought to strike in Africa as well, making sure that we do not overextend ourselves in pursuit of causes that do not reflect our interests. Such causes should only be pursued if we have resources to spare and can see at least abstract benefits from our action. To wit, we must be repaid at least in gratitude and the promise of a headache down the road averted to act when our interests aren't directly threatened. It is not our job to die so that people can be pigheaded about getting help, and if the local tribes fail to join us in attempting to eliminate their oppressors - or even shoot at us from the other side - the only logical course is to send both a message about how we feel, then leave. Indeed, if we were in Iraq solely because we're good guys, we should have left by now. However, as I noted, we are in Iraq to pursue both our interests and those of the Iraqi people. If the Iraqi people do not help, we should cross their interests out of the equation, but we will still be there a while because we have our own issues to deal with.
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