I went to an interesting talk yesterday. The speaker was Samantha Power, a Harvard professor and Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, which examines America’s reaction to acts of genocide around the world. At the risk of completely misinterpreting the point of her book, Power’s thesis was this: “The United States had never in its history intervened to stop genocide and had in fact rarely even made a point of condemning it as it occurred.”
And yet, despite her calls for America to do something about foreign genocide, Power found herself against the ongoing war/occupation in Iraq. Yes, it got rid of Saddam… but in the process, she said, the U.S. may have caused more problems.
Power believes that in the process of fighting this war, the United States brought four self-fulfilling prophecies to bear:
1. The Iraq – Al Qaeda connection: Before the war, the connection was specious. Now, it’s stronger than ever before. The war has bonded American haters around the world. See quote #1 for why this is a bad thing.
2. Targets: We wanted to lessen the potential for terrorism. Yet now in Iraq, there are a slew of soft targets for terrorists.
3. Legitimacy and Liberation: As much as it confounds us, many Iraqis saw Saddam as a legitimate ruler. They were fighting for their liberation, yes, but at least the country had a legitimate ruler. Now, however, Iraqis see an occupying force that won’t leave. They are still fighting for their liberation — but now it’s against what they perceive as an illegitimate ruler.
4. Ineptitude of the U.N.: The United States loves to bash the U.N. It doesn’t work, we say. It’s inept. Now that the Iraqi occupation is becoming more difficult, we are poised to hand off control of the situation to the U.N. In doing so, however, we will give them a black eye because the situation is a mess. As Power says, it’s a loser of a situation, not something anyone would want to inherit. And yet, the U.N. will probably take a larger role in its rebuilding, and after 5 or 10 years when it’s still going on, Americans will start to blame the U.N.’s ineptitude for a bad situation that hasn’t much improved.
A few choice quotes from her lecture:
- “U.S. security is undermined when everyone hates us.”
- “It’s very useful to know things about the place that you’re about to invade.”
- “The Bush administration is right: The Security Council is broken.”
- And, paraphrasing Robert Frost: “A liberal is someone who’s so openminded, he can’t take his own side in an argument.”
I’m not sure I agree with all her points, but she really made me think. I am grateful for that opportunity. Back in undergrad at U of M, this is the kind of thing I was hoping for. Intelligent speakers that would enlighten. No protestors anywhere to be found. A well thought out, reasoned discussion. At Michigan, that was not to be. Here at Case… it is!
