There is no doubt that the world is a complicated place, but I must point out that this particular exchange started out with my response to the sophisticated and deep analysis presented by Neocon in #reply-16127563 . I accept your criticism, though, and it's nice to see a few of the calmer voices coming back to continue the discussion. W's father 'didn't create those messes, but he didn't do much to improve the situation either.
On the specifics of W, the Balkans, Iraq, and Afghanistan, trying to be brief:
The Balkans: The devolution there didn't really predate the Reagan/Bush years, did it? The crisis in Bosnia started in Bush's term, as near as I can recall. Kosovo was as stupid as any war, but it did have the indirect effect of getting Slobo off the stage anyway, which has to count for something. (Just in passing, a little visual memorial to Slobo and his friends, here and abroad: nytimes.com . The print edition was better, though. )
Iraq: W's father certainly can't be faulted on the war there, it was brilliantly executed and the world would have been a worse place if it hadn't been fought. But there are indications it could have been avoided. Near term (as in weeks before the Iraqi invasion) there's the issue of what exactly April Glaspie said to Saddam, (on her own initiative, of course, if you believe James Baker). Before that, there's the issue of why in the world we were allied with Iraq during the Iran/Iraq war. "Agricultural aid", too. After the Gulf war, there is of course the issue of W's father's entreaties to the "Iraqi people" to "rise up against Saddam", quickly qualified with "I didn't mean those people" when the Shiites and Kurds took him at his word.
Afghanistan: Without looking up the dates, I recall a few years of "one more season of fighting" supported by Reagan/Bush after the collapse of the Soviet Union made any realistic geopolitical concerns there moot. Something better could have been done.
Hindsight is of course 20/20, but lots of people are more than willing to eat up snap historical judgements on the last 20 years or so, as long as the analysis cuts the "right" way.. As you say, the world is a complicated place. I'm not sure that conventional history has yet fully recovered from the "Birth of a Nation" style whitewash of the post-reconstruction South. I wouldn't look for the final judgement of our era in our lifetime. |
