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On American Military Redeployment to Iraq

Omar Alansari-Kreger

The sharpest irony that stands out as a sore thumb when observing American
foreign policy is that the pundits behind it are always trying to reinvent the wheel.
Statesmanship isnt achieved by the blatancy of militarism. Didnt the Romans teach us
anything? The military establishment is to be used as a force that can reinforce claims
of sovereignty once the official territorial absorption process is over. A defeated nation
doesnt always commit its troops to fight against a larger and more advanced force; any
coherent field commander will agree that such a move is only suicidal. Smaller nations
falter because they cant compete; that is one of the greatest costs of capitulation from
any military perspective. When a conquered people arent appeased they start rebelling
against the occupier and it is at that moment when the careers of political opportunists
are made and exhorted into the limelight.
The occupiers become the source of vengeful scapegoats that are bent on some
kind of national liberation, but the pursuit of that cause is almost always conditioned by
an ideological twist. Ideology is not a bad thing because there is no civilization without
one, but many distort it because the essence of anything ideological stands as a good
source of fodder to condition the desperately gullible. Once the military occupiers
withdrawal from the occupied land those opportunists find themselves in places of
power which sets the stage for a new chapter in their respective nations history. It isnt
coincidental why former adversaries of the occupying power shake hands with its top
figureheads once a withdrawal has been negotiated; that basically signifies a diplomatic
defeat for the occupying power which discredits its political reputation.
It is no secret that the cost of military occupation is immense and has time again
broken the backs of empires which caused their decline all over the world in every
historical epoch known to humankind. Altering a nations national paradigm isnt
achieved through the use of military force; a puppet government that is unbreakably
loyal to the occupying power doesnt change the nature of the situation. The cultivation
of a national paradigm occurs when an international superpower intervenes in a manner
that takes benign intervention to an affirmative level. Outside of the military and
economic parameters, what has the United States done to make Iraq a better nation for
Iraqis? Has any past presidential administration encouraged a non-aligned program of
national literacy? To the surprise of many a great deal of Iraqis that live in rural areas
(which constitutes the vast majority of Iraqs sovereignty) are entirely illiterate. Doesnt
that contribute to the vicious vengefulness that seems to engulf the entire nation?
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A campaign of national literacy is the first step that can be taken to break Iraq out
of this malignant cycle and any degree of success can establish a new precedent for the
region. Moving on to similar issues it is imperative to ask the following: has any
American presidential administration proposed an initiative that could acknowledge and
potentially reverse the detrimental aftereffects of depleted uranium all over Iraqi
sovereignty? Has the United States committed a serious effort toward initiatives that
take issues of public health to a serious level? The United States has definitely
contributed a great deal of infrastructure to Iraq in the aftermath of the Second Gulf
War, but where have these investments been geared? Much of these renditions have
been of a militarized nature engineered for the pursuit of economic resources. Those
efforts do very little to touch the lives of everyday Iraqis which is one of the reasons why
the United States continues to be seen as a malignant power all over the world.
Leaving Iraq with a halfwit government corrupted to the bone will ensure that
instability will once again roost in a highly volatile and strategically important nation in
the Middle East. Something will be done about Iraq, but unfortunately the administration
and the psyche of the United States government is still operating within the parameters
of a defeated paradigm of statesmanship which is still locked within the realm of politics
bent on dividing and conquering. If Iraq is to have a future it is imperative to build an
incentivized nation that is geared toward a national program of infrastructure
construction geared toward trilateral-ism (Kurd & Arab affiliations) as opposed to
absolute sectarianism. Holistically, that isnt going to be achieved through brute military
force; any angle of common sense will confirm that.