STUPID OR VERY STUPID?

Australian anti-terrorist expert David Kilcullen who now it seems works for the American imperialists in Iraq described the invasion of Iraq as stupid. In fact, he was quoted as being more emphatic. Australians you know are very direct . . . blah, blah, blah.

According to The Australian’s Geoff Elliot, “his blunt statement shocked Washington insiders”. The sensitive little dears seem oblivious to the five years of pain and suffering inflicted on the Iraqi people on the basis of lying, arrogance, and now to be admitted stupidity. But, of course, nothing can change the minds afflicted by the paradigm that power comes out of the barrel of a gun, aerial bombing and helicopter anti-tank rockets used against civilian populations. Killing and murder at a distance is so cool. International humanitarian law is so irrelevant.

Kilcullen, quick it seems to appease the masters, made it clear that his views were that of the policy realist, not connected in anyway to moral principles, which should qualify him to continue in his role. “Aussie Kilcullen” referring to the journalist who quoted him as saying the Iraq invasion was emphatically stupid, the majority view perhaps in global as well as American public opinion elaborated:

“If he had sought a formal comment, I would have told him what I have said publicly before: in my view, the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 was an extremely serious strategic error.

“But the task of the moment is not to cry over spilt milk, rather to help clean it up: a task in which the surge, the comprehensive counterinsurgency approach, and our troops on the ground are admirably succeeding,” he said.

Best we also not talk about lying then.

Even the realist position on international relationships should take into account the moral implications, because, it seems to me, of the direct implications for soft power which furnishes each nations standing, influence and successful diplomacy. Violence or threat power is at best limited, or simply expires when an opponent girds their loins and says, “do your worst”. The realist position is a set of assumptions about how others will behave, or more often how the actor would act in their position.

Then realism may not be what we normally think it to be. I read somewhere that the meteorologists of France and Germany continued to cooperate, as they always had, even though the countries were at war during part of the Second World War. Reality is sometimes something that we do not take it to be, and it might have something as well to do with the psychological stage of the development of the people making the decisions.

POSTSCRIPT:

Fabius Maximus discusses the academic work of Dr Kilcullen on counter insurgency in the context of geopolitics (via automatically generated links).