Brooks: For Iraqis to Win, the U.S. Must Lose

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/11/opinion/11BROO.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=

This has been a crushingly depressing period, especially for people who support the war in Iraq. The predictions people on my side made about the postwar world have not yet come true. The warnings others made about the fractious state of post-Saddam society have.

It's still too soon to declare the Iraq mission a failure. Some of the best reporting out of Iraq suggests that many Iraqis have stared into the abyss of what their country could become and have decided to work with renewed vigor toward the democracy that both we and they want.

Nonetheless, it's not too early to begin thinking about what was clearly an intellectual failure. There was, above all, a failure to understand the consequences of our power. There was a failure to anticipate the response our power would have on the people we sought to liberate. They resent us for our power and at the same time expect us to be capable of everything. There was a failure to understand the effect our power would have on other people around the world. We were so sure we were using our might for noble purposes, we assumed that sooner or later, everybody else would see that as well. Far from being blinded by greed, we were blinded by idealism.

<snip>

Now, looking ahead, we face another irony. To earn their own freedom, the Iraqis need a victory. And since it is too late for the Iraqis to have a victory over Saddam, it is imperative that they have a victory over us. If the future textbooks of a free Iraq get written, the toppling of Saddam will be vaguely mentioned in one clause in one sentence. But the heroic Iraqi resistance against the American occupation will be lavishly described, page after page. For us to succeed in Iraq, we have to lose.

If it wasn't for all the wasted lives of both sides, it would be fun watching these idiots like Brooks who kissed * butt and gloried in our going to war realizing it has all gone to hell.

the first paragraph was a tease as it seemed that Brooks came to his (limited) senses, but the rest disproved it

Brooks seems to have broken my old one with his column.

Recommended by Hemingway....

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

It takes awhile to change your whole orientation. This is a very positive meme, and is actually a good way of looking at the situation. Let him keep some of the illusions about US intentions, etc.

Pursuing a military win is not only fruitless, it makes it impossible for the Iraqis to accept the result. To echo Woodrow Wilson, we need "peace without victory." Or as Leon Russell sang "give up and win, that's all I have to say."

team with... "see - really we are winning!" argument. Not unlike last summer/fall when the Pentagon told us that the insurgency was a good sign because fighting picks up when the losing side is losing and growing desperate... granted the arguments (as to why losing is winning) differ - but attempted spin is the same.

piece. Guess I haven't gotten cynical enough. But sometimes people are able to admit when they were wrong.

he's the guy who wrote a column suggesting that all criticisms of the neocons was actually antisemitism. Got called on it and had to write a second "haha I was just joking" column. He writes for the very right wing Weekly Standard and often is a harbinger of the direction they all start pushing to frame the conversation. So yes, I have gotten cynical, and read him with a... "so what is his angle" eye. Given we have already heard the "losing actually means we are winning" type arguments before (when the insurgency picked up steam last summer) - this really sounds like staging round two of that argument - but one with a more intellectually appealing argument behind it (the first time it was "they are striking out more frequently because they are losing and are desperate"... which was very weak in logic).

Why doesn't he quit giving his lame opinions, and direct his readers to read the people who were right, the people who were against the war?

but since my rant got no comment in General Discussion earlier, I'll just link to it here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1574234#1575192

That made any sense whatsoever ....

PUT THE KOOLAID CUP DOWN Robert ....