Posted on 06/29/2004 3:03:05 PM PDT by fporretto
June 29, 2004
The opening days of World War I produced some of the most memorable quotes in recorded history. Among your Curmudgeon's favorites is the following, more doom-laden than any words that had been uttered for centuries before.
"The world will be plunged into the most terrible of wars...all for a word -- 'neutrality'...all for a scrap of paper." -- Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, Chancellor of the German Empire, referring to Britain's decision to go to war over Germany's violation of Belgium's neutrality, which had been guaranteed by Britain, France and Germany in an 1832 treaty.
Indeed.
Yesterday was marked by the passage of another scrap of paper between the hands of statesmen. This time, it was a document prepared in Washington, that conceded the sovereignty of the Iraqi Provisional Government.
Detractors of the Bush Administration, have tried several angles of denigration and ridicule on this development. What meaning, they ask, has this "sovereignty," conveyed by a mere scrap of paper, when there are still American troops all over Iraq? What meaning did Iraqi "sovereignty" have when Saddam Hussein was in power? We ignored it quite effectively then, didn't we? As long as American forces retain the ultimate veto over matters in Iraq, isn't Bremer's sovereignty document just as disposable as Belgium's neutrality guarantees? Oughtn't we to be concentrating on the really important matters, like Dick Cheney's "F-bomb," Fahrenheit 9/11, and Abu Ghraib?
The Iraqis don't think so. To them, this was a very big deal. It's the fulfillment of a promise made by a nation so powerful that no other force could compel it to make good on its given word. It's the demonstration of American sincerity and good will that sets the seal on Operation Iraqi Freedom. It's evidence for Iraq and the world to see that we meant what we said.
From June 28 on, Iraqis will elect other Iraqis to make the laws that govern Iraq.
From June 28 on, Iraqis will negotiate on Iraq's behalf with the governments of other nations.
From June 28 on, the American military presence in Iraq will be a supplement to Iraq's own army and internal police, rather than an occupying force tasked to impose America's will on a subject people. Over time it will dwindle in size, until one day it is no more.
Sovereignty, as your Curmudgeon has written previously, is not a possession one can clutch to one's chest like a bowling trophy. It's a condition conceded by other nations. As matters stood before June 28, Iraq's sovereignty was America's to award or withhold. The Coalition authorities on the scene had to be convinced that the new Iraqi government was ready to stand on its own, that Iraq was ready to graduate from a protectorate to a partner. So it has been decided, and so it has been done.
As Robert Pirsig has written, the analytical knife of human understanding can cut the raw data of the world in many ways. Partitions that make no sense at all to some will seem unimpeachable to others. He would probably agree that your Curmudgeon's concept of the Age of Legalism is one such partition. Some will scratch their heads over it, while others nod and murmur, "yes, of course."
Since the Congress of Vienna in 1815, which was held to bring some structure and stability to post-Napoleonic Europe, international dealing has placed the highest importance on legal forms, principally treaties and alliance agreements. Strictly speaking, these could not be enforced upon the signatories without recourse to military action, which was the very thing those treaties and alliances had been forged to avert. Yet statesmen labored mightily over them, doing their best to ensure their rationality and evenhandedness. A measure of their importance in the eyes of the world was the gasp of incredulous outrage that circled Europe over Bethmann-Hollweg's "scrap of paper" comment. Historian A. J. P. Taylor, arguably the foremost of all scholars of World War I, has called it "one of the most terrible things that has ever been said."
The prerequisite for all human interaction is the maintenance of trust. One must be true to one's word, if one wants others to be true to theirs. No arrangement among men will form if men cannot trust one another. Without trust, each of us is an isolated atom seeking to watch all avenues of attack at once, incapable of any undertaking that requires more than his own muscles, skills, or mind can accomplish.
As with men, so also with nations. A government must be true to its sworn word, if it wants other governments to be true to theirs. On no other basis are treaties or alliances even thinkable. Yet it has often seemed that nations are inherently untrustworthy, ready to betray their allies and break their promises as soon as they can gain anything by doing so. The nature of government makes this a thing forever to be feared.
It didn't happen this time. We said we would set Iraq upon its own feet by June 30, and we did.
Historians will someday recognize June 28, 2004 as one of the most important days of our century. The United States, a nation of unopposable military might, invaded smaller, weaker Iraq and conquered it. We said we'd done it to rid the world of a murderous tyrant. Our detractors said we did it for oil, or for domestic political gain, or for any of a number of other contemptible reasons. We expunged the tyrant's government root and branch, then supervised Iraq's transition from the chaos of war back to a semblance of peace and order, despite many attempts to disrupt it. On June 28, we gave the Iraqi people freedom and autonomy, with a sincere promise of assistance should their embryonic republic encounter any difficulties it was still too young to handle.
We gave our blood and treasure to liberate Iraq from the villainy of Saddam Hussein. Then we gave our word that Iraq would be freed from our supervision as well. Then we stood by it. That is the significance of Paul Bremer's "scrap of paper."
May God bless the men and women of Operation Iraqi Freedom, who fought and died to replace a blood-drenched tyranny with a constitutional republic. May He watch over the people of the newly sovereign Iraq, as they set out on their adventure in self-determination. And may He forever guard and guide these United States of America, still the last, best hope of Mankind.
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