What responsibility?

In reading this statement of Charles Krauthammer’s

We have made a lot of mistakes in Iraq. But when Arabs kill Arabs and Shiites kill Shiites and Sunnis kill all in a spasm of violence that is blind and furious and has roots in hatreds born long before America was even a republic, to place the blame on the one player, the one country, the one military that has done more than any other to try to separate the combatants and bring conciliation is simply perverse.

It infantilizes Arabs. It demonizes Americans. It willfully overlooks the plainest of facts: Iraq is their country. We midwifed their freedom. They chose civil war.

(in response to Fareed Zakaria’s comment in Newsweek that America had given Iraqis a civil war), I wondered “what is the responsibility of the bartender who serves a drunk?”

Yes, some (but not all) of the Iraqis chose civil war. Wasn’t it foreseeable? Was it preventable?

4 comments… add one
  • Doesn’t the bartender analogy go a long way in confirming the “infantizization” argument?

  • Krauthammer doesn’t have a clue. We invaded Iraq with the best intentions, but once that war was won, we destroyed virtually all entities of Saddam’s government. Such an act carries a certain responsibility that the USA will pick up and fulfill those responsibilities. It’s clear we, for whatever reason you want to pick, did not or could not replace those Iraqi institutions, particularly those in charge of security. Our inability to provide security in essence forced the Iraqi populace to seek both protection and reprisal from the only groups that could – the militias. AQ’s strategy almost from the beginning was to foment civil war by attacking the populace and sowing insecurity. We were ultimately not able to effectively combat that goal and it was surely our responsibility to do so. Did Krauthammer really expect western-style progressive institutions to form in such an environment, particularly considering Iraqi history? The level of ignorance is mind-boggling.

  • I’m with Andy. We created a power vacuum. That doesn’t make us 100% responsible, but the number isn’t 0% either.

  • His earlier musings on the subject prompted me to write this post: http://duckofminerva.blogspot.com/2006/11/blame-america-last.html

    I can see he has no intention of stopping this line of argument. I am ‘so pleased’ that the WaPo gives him the space to do so….

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