<Well, goodness... Tell that to Japan and Germany... It certainly wasn't "futile, nor "Utopian" to completely restructure their political systems in a manner similar to ours. And look how they have prospered as a result.>
There are a number of reasons why what we did in Germany and Japan does not apply to Iraq:
1. We had killed millions of their civilians, defeating their will to resist (not just the army, but the entire population). We have not done this in Iraq (and hopefully, won't).
2. Japan had, since their revolution in the 1870s, been slavishly trying to imitate Western culture. Germany had been a secular liberal democracy before 1934. Those pre-conditions do not exist in Iraq. They have never wanted to be like Americans, and they have no previous tradition of secular democracy.
3. the size of the armies we had in the 1940s was far, far larger than anything we are willing to raise today. 150,000 soldiers isn't enough to garrison Iraq, let alone govern it, unless we have the willing cooperate of most of the population. Which, clearly, we don't. If we wanted to turn Iraq into a success like Germany, we'd need to put in an army equal to 5% of the population (that's about 1.25 million soldiers), and keep them there for 50 years. Any commitment short of that, won't work. |
