The last two administrations have devoted a lot of effort to nation building abroad, but there is a fundamental problem with the idea: historically, nations are primarily built by war, especially against invading Great Powers. United Germany, for example, was built mostly by war with the French, especially defeat by Napoleon and victory over Napoleon III.
The United States most definitely did not "build" the nations of West Germany and Japan after WWII. Instead, we took two supremely united nations that had been forged into terrible instruments of war and defanged them. The Occupations, the transformations of these two militarist nation-states into good neighbors, were perhaps the greatest triumph of American New Dealers, much more impressive in many ways than the New Deal itself.
In contrast, despite all the big talk about Islamofascism, Iraq is the anti-Germany. The sinister fact is that the only plausible way that we could facilitate the nation building of Iraq is by losing to some upstart Iraqi insurgent, as modern Turkey was forged by Ataturk in his victories over the British and French would-be colonialists after WWI. So far, no general of genius has emerged in the Iraqi insurgency, but it might still happen.
The United States most definitely did not "build" the nations of West Germany and Japan after WWII. Instead, we took two supremely united nations that had been forged into terrible instruments of war and defanged them. The Occupations, the transformations of these two militarist nation-states into good neighbors, were perhaps the greatest triumph of American New Dealers, much more impressive in many ways than the New Deal itself.
In contrast, despite all the big talk about Islamofascism, Iraq is the anti-Germany. The sinister fact is that the only plausible way that we could facilitate the nation building of Iraq is by losing to some upstart Iraqi insurgent, as modern Turkey was forged by Ataturk in his victories over the British and French would-be colonialists after WWI. So far, no general of genius has emerged in the Iraqi insurgency, but it might still happen.
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
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