Comments on: Give Civil War a Chance, Part II

By: Randall

Randall — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 00:54:01 +0000

It is simply NOT obvious that a civil war in Iraq is, at this point, the worst possible outcome.

Here's a worse outcome than a civila war now (or soon):

American troops spend ten more years failing to bring democracy to Iraq, loose 5,000 more good men and women than have already been lost, and THEN there is a civil war.

The argument that we "owe" Iraq democracy is predicated on the idea that democracy is a possibility for a part of the world that managed to avoid it for this long.

If this idea is false, it's time to go.

N. O. W.

By: Jonk

Jonk — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 20:10:53 +0000

It's those blasted colonial boundries! Redraw them, maybe they won't notice...

...no?...

...well, it was worth a shot.

By: G A Phillips

G A Phillips — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 18:43:39 +0000

Civil war will happen because of Islam, nothing more nothing less, and it's not give civil war a chance, it's take a chance and place your bets on when it's going to commence.

By: LJD

LJD — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 16:50:17 +0000

Yeah! Let those dirty stinkin arabs kill eachother without our intervention. After all we got social programs to pay for....

By: just me

just me — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 16:48:51 +0000

I actually agree that if civil war breaks out, the best bet is to back out, rather than trying to stop it.

I sometimes think the whole Israel/Palestinian conflict would be much better, if we weren't so busy trying to stop war, and we just let the Israelis and Palestinians fight it out until one side of the other was defeated.

By: Anderson

Anderson — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 16:33:37 +0000

Unfortunately, not every clever idea is a good idea. Different title, & I think GD might not've written his post. I mean, you could title a TCS essay "Dirty Stinking Arabs" & then explain how it was an allusion to a line in Finnegans Wake, but that wouldn't save the title.

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 15:42:45 +0000

DCL: Good point. O'Rourke's book actually came out in 1992. I bought it in grad school about a year after getting back from Desert Storm. I'm not sure if Luttwak stole the title from him or whether it is just a rather obvious play on the simplistic lefty "Give Peace a Chance" line.

By: DC Loser

DC Loser — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 15:37:34 +0000

James, I Didn't comment on this earlier. But P.J. O'Rourke is the originator of the "Give War a Chance" line. That was the title of his 1996 book which talked about Desert Storm. Luttwak's article was in '99, as I think you said in your piece.