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Diplomacy and Peace

*This* war couldn’t have been won with diplomacy. Diplomacy isn’t peacemaking. Diplomacy is advancing your country’s interests. Our interests were not advanced.

Simply put.

Our interests were degraded and undercut during the 10 years of "diplomacy" with Saddam. Going backwards, even slowly, is not a win. Though we weren’t going backward slowly. By playing by the rules during Desert Storm, keeping to the immediate problem of pushing Saddam back but not going beyond that UN mandate, we failed our county’s interests. Following up with "diplomacy" did not even marginally advance our interests. It amazes me that no one seems to remember the hatred and accusations that the US got for it’s troubles during those years after playing nice and letting Saddam live. No one remembers, and it wasn’t that long ago. Oh how the world hated us! How many Iraqi deaths were laid at our feet, directly at the feet of the US, how many children there died in horrible agony because of America and her Satanic evil, while Saddam built palaces, his sons built rape rooms, and the UN took a slice of diverted food aid and called itself the moral authority, virtue defined.

And no one remembers.

No one remembers outrage about weapons grade chlorine. No one remembers the moral weight of all those dead babies.

Because sanctions, diplomacy, was *working*.

It’s like a religion.

Comments

Ymarsakar said…
As communication and information technologies develop, it seems our memories become shorter. Interesting side-effect.

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