If War is Hell, What Will Peace Be Like?

The coming days and weeks could be terrible. I'm filled with anxiety over the battles to come in Iraq, and the battles raging as I write this. I've stated previously that I agree that Saddam Hussein, his sons and those who follow him all must go. The sooner the better. And with extreme prejudice. There is no comfort in being for the war, only the conviction that the status quo was far worse. Living in denial is a sin as much as ordering two countries into battle.

I'm convinced that all this will come at a terrible cost. I'm appalled at the images of killed and tortured American soldiers that I saw on the Web site of al-Jezeerah. I worry over the loss of lives and terrible injuries to American and British soldiers, young men and women who have been asked to settle what the diplomats from the nations of the world lacked the courage to do for many years. I take no comfort in the stories I have read on British newspaper Web sites of the injuries suffered by the children of Baghdad who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And I am outraged by the utter arrogance of Saddam Hussein and his inner circle, the followers in his Ba'ath Party, his secret police, his military and the Saddam Fedeyeen to subject the ordinary people of Iraq (Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurds alike) to a life of misery. They are willing to destroy Iraq to continue their arrogant grip on power. And I am appalled that the world would stand idle for so many years to let this fester as long as it has. We are not without deep conflicts of interest.

So I want this to end soon. I want the inevitable conclusion to take place with as little suffering as possible. Except of course, to Saddam and those like him. I want the Iraqis to get their country back, for the first time in decades.

But as much as I worry about the horrors of war, I am also as worried about the peace to come, if you want to call it that. Like the American south following our Civil War, I wonder who will be next to exploit Iraq. We can expect to see the Iranians, long a traditional rival to Iraq, taking advantage of this moment of weakness, to become the new power in the region. We can expect ethnic cleansing and revenge. We can expect powerful interests from America, Europe and the Middle East to act like so many carpetbaggers, all wanting a piece of the action in rebuilding Iraq and getting a share of its wealth. And I expect the hatred to continue, as radical Islamic elements try to exploit the suffering of the Iraqis to their own ends.

I see nothing pretty in this. Securing a lasting peace will be much more difficult than winning the war.

Think hard: can you name a single Islamic country that is truly a democracy? I can't either. Left to its own devices, can the people of Iraq craft a democracy in the inevitable vacuum following the era of despotic rule by Saddam Hussein? Can Iraq survive intact in a land of three different peoples, different tribes and different religions? Or will the forces of the West act cynically and install a new dictator that would fit under the description, "he may be a bastard, but he's our bastard"?

In the last war for the Persian Gulf, the incompetence and selfish interests that make the United Nations an oxymoron and a bitter sham snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. At the time, the assembled coalition could have forced a regime change in Iraq, and I believe the world would have been in the mood to support it. The world stopped short, and an opportunity was missed, one with horrible consequences. Saddam took violent revenge on the Shi'ite Muslims in the south and the Kurds in the north who believed at the time that the United Nations would back their efforts to revolt. The United States lost its nerve at a time when the world backed their efforts. Out of the ashes of war grew al Queda and Osama bin Laden. Will we make the same mistakes again? We do so at our own peril.

If we approach the rebuilding of Iraq in cynical fashion, or leave the people of Iraq to their own defense, the vermin that are the remnants of Saddam Hussein and the Ba'ath Party could re-emerge. These monsters must be hunted down and brought to justice, be it frontier justice or through a long, painful legal process. If we don't invest in post war nation-building, chaos and new wars could rise from the ashes of the current conflict. A Pax Americana won't work. The Iraqi people have to have a strong hand in making a nation of their own, and that may mean a resulting Iraq that might not be to the satisfaction of every American. This won't be easy. War is Hell. But peace can be even harder. Are we ready?

Memo to the war protesters: I don't like war either. But wishing Saddam away would only deepen the suffering of the people of Iraq, suffering we don't see, suffering you refuse to acknowledge. So here is my challenge to you: If you feel so strongly about peace, then put down your protest signs and prepare instead to help with the rebuilding of Iraq. That takes more courage than a march down the streets of New York, Paris or San Francisco. A lot more. Are you ready?