MILITARY OCCUPATIONS: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE POSSIBLY UGLY: Okay, George Bush has set us on the path of war, and in the days ahead Iraqi people, Iraqi conscripts, the fighting members of the all-volunteer US and British armies and numerous other human groups near and far from the battlefield have, as a consequence, been put squarely in harm’s way.
I, of all people, don’t want to elide that fact.
However, soberly speaking, there is every prospect from what we know that the US military will “prevail” militarily. So it is really important to start looking at what comes next…
Earlier today, I wrote an incredibly long post that surveyed various military occupations over the past 60 years, judging which seemed to have worked well, and which not… For the whole text of that post, go here. And this was my bottom line:
Which leaves us as Americans where?
Paying the cost of this occupation ourselves. And we can ask the Israelis how high those costs might be.