America’s most famous thinker on where we are and how we got here:
Fukuyama thinks there were two key causes for the Bush administration’s decision to attack Iraq.
The first was the way the Cold War ended. Central players like US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Mr Wolfowitz saw the success of the hardline Reagan policy towards the Soviet Union.
Do these people understand anything at all? The policy that toppled the Soviet Union was Truman’s . . .
Later, in the Balkans, they saw the failure of the Europeans to act decisively. This persuaded them that America could wield its power morally and unilaterally, and that Europe should not be trusted.
And I suppose the effective exercise of power in this hemisphere — Haiti as a perpetual basketcase, the Somoza regime(s), the former oligarchy in Mexico, Noriega, the druglords in Colombia, possible tampering in the Venezuelan elections — shows some kind of moral strength?
‘I guess at the moment I’m a little bit more optimistic than many people in Washington, who are generally panicked by events since the beginning of April. Actually, I think people should be more panicked by events in the long term. Increasingly, I find it hard to imagine a series of events that will lead to a good outcome. There’s a much easier path towards civil war than there is to a stable, democratic Iraq. In the long run, this has not made us more secure, it has made us less secure. It is appalling.’
Well, yeah. Power, like nature, abhors a vacuum. Did the breakup of Yugoslavia after the death of Tito fail to register with these brainiacs?
Earlier in the article, Fukuyama cites the neocons historical aversion to nation-building (Bush even mentioned the idea as something he wouldn’t entertain during his first campaign). So what are we doing there? I’m inclined to say, vote ’em back in so they have to deal with the mess, but my experience with children tells me it’s sometimes better to just clean it up yourself. They may not learn from their mistake.
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