From the very beginning of the U.S. intervention in Iraq and the effort to build some kind of democracy there, a simple but gnawing question has lurked in the background: Was Iraq the way Iraq was (a dictatorship) because Saddam was the way Saddam was, or was Saddam the way Saddam was because Iraq was the way Iraq was — a collection of warring sects incapable of self-rule and only governable with an iron fist?
That's fair enough. Banal--but fair. Although for his leftish readership raised on 7 years of prophecy about how we are doomed in Iraq, I suppose even this bit of ordinary analysis is a shocking revelation.
A lot is up to the Iraqis even though we have a role in promoting their better instincts and providing reassurance that some Iraqis won't revert to the bad old days.
But at least Friedman thinks it could go either way for Iraq. Funny enough, with his crush on China's rulers, Freidman thinks America is just a collection of warring sects incapable of self-rule and only governable with an iron fist. For him, that's a known known.
