Paul Krugman says the current president, G.W. Bush, is following a pattern of “malign neglect” (p. A23 in today’s NY Times). This, he says, explains what has gone wrong in Iraq. The assumption that evicting a dictator, dispersing an enemy army and installing a military occupation will automatically create a democratic Iraq, has disappointingly been proven wrong. The opponents of the war hasten to point this out while G.W. Bush and his clones defend “malign neglect”. That is what has gone wrong.
Assumptions based on political needs that you will always have an easy win every time you make iffy decisions can and are proving wrong. Backing the wrong horse in a race is a prime example of the mistake of assuming your choice will always show up in the winner’s circle while the race was supremely run, despite expectations of wishes or desires. Plans do not always come out in the way that you want. There is a song about that somewhere.
A well-run invasion remotely controlled with small loss of life and minimal commitment has turned out to be a horror of an occupation. The invading army, geared for killing is expected to supervise the peace that has not turned out to be peaceful. The people under occupation are not docile and not unexpectedly have turned out to be uncooperative, undemocratic and uninvolved in the effort to maintain peace and install “democracy” while loving their conquerors.
What is clear is that the bin Laden message of jihad against American wealth, power and “Western” values motivates the resistance to the charm of George W. Bush while the American people who support him wonder why. After the conquest of Iraq does no one wonder why plans to restore Iraq to an honored place among the nations of the world, is not working according to plan? There is no plan. Instead there are platitudes and efforts to deify and reelect a man who did not have and still has not won the support of the majority of the American people. This is not a reassuring model for Democracy in the world, much less here at home where Mr. Bush has not begun to solve pervasive economic problems.
What has been neglected is the “War on Poverty”, the “New Deal”, the “New Frontier”, “Universal Health Care”, “fair treatment for non-citizens and the image of the United States among its neighbors in the world. Mr. Bush has been accused of dealing out “malign neglect”. This is not only true in the defeated Iraq, but here at home in America among those exposed to “malign neglect”.