Five Vital Lessons From Iraq (Paul Johnson)
Forbes.com ^ | 03.17.03 | Paul Johnson

Posted on 03/03/2003 12:23 AM PST by giotto

The Iraq crisis has already pointed up a number of valuable lessons. So far I have identified five:

• Lesson I. We have been reminded that France is not to be trusted at any time, on any issue. The British have learned this over 1,000 years of acrimonious history, but it still comes as a shock to see how badly the French can behave, with their unique mixture of shortsighted selfishness, long-term irresponsibility, impudent humbug and sheer malice. Americans are still finding out--the hard way--that loyalty, gratitude, comradeship and respect for treaty obligations are qualities never exhibited by French governments. All they recognize are interests, real or imaginary. French support always has to be bought. What the Americans and British now have to decide is whether formal alliances that include France as a major partner are worth anything at all, or if they are an actual encumbrance in times of danger.

We also have to decide whether France should be allowed to remain as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, with veto power, or whether it should be replaced by a more suitable power, such as India. Linked to this is the question of whether France can be trusted as a nuclear power. The French have certainly sold nuclear technology to rogue states in the past, Iraq among them. In view of France's attempts to sabotage America's vigorous campaign to halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction, we need to be sure that France is not planning to cover the cost of its flagging nuclear weapons program by selling secrets to unruly states. Certainly Anglo-American surveillance of French activities in this murky area must be intensified.

• Lesson II. Germany is a different case. The Germans are capable of loyalty and even gratitude. For many years Germany was one of the most dependable members of NATO. But the country is now very depressed, both psychologically and economically, with unemployment moving rapidly toward the 5 million mark and no prospect of an early recovery. With a weak, unpopular and demoralized government, Germany has been lured by France into a posture of hostility toward the Anglosphere, a posture that corresponds neither to the instincts nor the interests of the German people. Germany is a brand to be snatched from the burning; we must make a positive and urgent effort to win it back to the fold.

• Lesson III. The assumption, in many minds, seems to be that whereas individual powers act on the world stage according to the brutal rules of realpolitik, the U.N. represents legitimacy and projects an aura of idealism. In fact, more than half a century of experience shows that the U.N. is a theater of hypocrisy, a sink of corruption, a street market of sordid bargains and a seminary of cynicism. It is a place where mass-murdering heads of state can stand tall and sell their votes to the highest bidder and where crimes against humanity are rewarded. For many people the true nature of the U.N. was epitomized by the news that Libya, a blood-soaked military dictatorship of the crudest kind, is to chair the U.N. Commissionon Human Rights. It's people like Muammar Qaddafi who benefit from the U.N., who are legitimized by its spurious respectability.

Looking back on the last year, it is clear the U.S. should not have accepted Britain's argument that, on balance, the U.N. route was the safest road to a regime change in Iraq. In fact, going this way has done a lot of damage to U.S. (and British) interests and has given Russia, China and other powers the opportunity to drive hard bargains. President Bush should soon make it clear that, where his country's vital interests are concerned, the U.S. reserves the right to act independently, together with such friends as share those interests.

• Lesson IV. The split within NATO underscores the fact that in its present form and composition NATO is out of date. There is no longer a frontier to defend or to act as a trip wire; there is no longer a reason for the U.S. to keep large forces in fixed bases on the European continent--at great cost to the U.S.' balance of payments. These forces should be repatriated with all deliberate speed. There is obviously a need to have bases, which can be activated in an emergency, in states the U.S. feels can be trusted to honor their obligations.

Britain, which is not so much an ally of America as it is a member of the same family, will continue to serve as the geographical center of the Anglosphere and as America's offshore island to the Eurasian landmass. Other than that, the U.S. should put its trust in the seas and oceans, which offer a home and a friendly environment to its forces and do not change with the treacherous winds of opinion. The military lessons to be learned from the lead-up to the Iraq operation are profound, and all point in the same direction: America should always have the means to act alone, in any area of the globe where danger threatens and with whatever force is necessary.

• Lesson V. This last lesson flows from the fourth. The U.S. must not merely possess the means to act alone if necessary; it must alsocultivate the will. Fate, or Divine Providence, has placed America at this time in the position of sole superpower, with the consequent duty to uphold global order and to punish, or prevent, the great crimes of the world. That is what America did in Afghanistan, is in the process of doing in Iraq and will have to do elsewhere.

It must continue to engage the task imposed upon it, not in any spirit of hubris but in the full and certain knowledge that it is serving the best and widest interests of humanity.

Paul Johnson, eminent British historian and author, Lee Kuan Yew, senior minister of Singapore, and Ernesto Zedillo, former president of Mexico, in addition to Forbes Chairman Caspar W. Weinberger, are now periodically writing this column.