The Sciolist has Past Imperfect:
The U.S. can invade Iraq, overthrow its dictator, and in time rebuild the country into a free, modern, secular nation living under the rule of law.Posted by Simon at July 12, 2004 02:27 AMThose of us who assert this use Germany in World War II as a comparison. But is it the right one? Iraq today seems little like the Germany of 1945 -- a shattered nation that before its defeat had been tightly bonded by social organization and a strong nationalist tradition.
Instead, what I read and see from Iraq reminds me more of the Germany of 1815: Regionally fragmented, partially liberated from its native petty tyrants, with unresolved issues of religion and politics. It has a civil service in its infancy, systems still corrupt, and a growing middle class restive for rights and reforms. It's a nation vulnerable to neighboring powers, with citizens increasingly maddened by the clash of their foreign liberators' egalitarian rhetoric and the humiliating realities of occupation.