I have mentioned in the past that I occasionally have to make long drives for work (fry cook for hire have spatula will travel) so I keep a number of audiobooks loaded in my CD changer or on my iPod to keep me entertained.
This morning I was on my way in to my work and I was bored with "Jane Eyre" so I switched over to "The Prince". Machiavelli is discussing newly acquired principalities and the methods of subjugating them and he echoes a couple thoughts I have had on Iraq (or more accurately I echo him but hey I am writing this thing so I am seizing credit).
The first point is on the difficulty in occupying Iraq. A number of times I have made the point that one of the reasons the occupation and rebuilding of Iraq is so much more difficult than what we encountered in Germany and Japan is the war went to fast and was too precise. It isn't that the Iraqi people didn't suffer but that they didn't suffer hard enough or long enough to break their will. Machiavelli says on this point that:
Upon this, one has to remark that men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge
source: Project Gutenberg
Our policy appears to have been the worst possible combination; we injured the Iraqi's but relatively lightly and then attempted to treat them well allowing them the opportunity to avenge themselves. We also did not prevent outsiders (Al-Qaeda and Iran) from attaining strength in Iraq which Machiavelli also warned against.
My second point is on the idea that there is no military solution in Iraq. There is a solution, just not one that America is willing to pursue. It is the "Kill them all let God sort it out" solution. On this Machiavelli is very blunt:
there are three ways of keeping a principality that is accustomed to living under its own laws: destroy it, reside in it or collect tribute from it. However, the only sure way is to destroy it because there is always a chance that its inhabitants will rebel in the name of freedom, which once tasted is never forgotten. Thus, a territory that is used to having a ruler will be easier to control than a more liberal territory, such as a republic.
source: wikipedia
I just found it interesting that his thoughts on this stuff were so close to mine 5 centuries apart. Of course "The Prince" is part of our cultural heritage so that probably influenced my thinking heavily.
The Prince, Machiavelli, Books, Western Canon, Iraq, War
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