A valuable insight from a Paul Robinson piece on Iraq:
- Actually, withdrawing might be the best thing we could do for them. Far from provoking civil war, the sight of us running from a combined Shia-Sunni offensive could provide Iraqis with a unifying myth of self-liberation to bind the country together and enable them to face the future with confidence.
Drop the macho pose for a minute and think about this. Conservatives and libertarians (not to mention America’s black Muslims) have long derided government hand-out programs in part because of their debilitating psychological effect on recipients. I would say the same logic applies here. Will Iraq be the first nation whose founding myth is one of subservience and humiliation? How do you expect that to turn out?
