Belmont Club's Wretchard has been examining Iraqi culture and its progress towards liberalization. He offers some advice:
The US military dominance of the battlefield and its ability to suppress the activities of criminal gangs has meaning only if it creates the necessary space to peaceably alter the dysfunctional aspects of Middle Eastern society which are the wellsprings of terrorism. What is the use of American military superiority if it simply provides an opportunity for Al Jazeera to spread its propaganda via the newly licit satellite dishes? The normal metrics of military success should also have their cultural analogues. The GWOT cannot be considered won until 90% of the viewership in the Middle East watches something other than Al Jazeera. The campaign in Iraq cannot be considered a success until Baghdad becomes the cultural capital of the Arab world, producing not less than 200 Arabic films a year: comedies, family dramas, stories of Arab boys who have triumphed over adversity to become doctors, scientists and explorers in outer space. Until the day when an Iraqi boy looks at an aircraft and dreams of flying to the moon instead of turning it into a 150 ton bomb the war will not be won. It must be our goal to create a system of education which would make attendance at a madrassa a stultifying experience by comparison: dreaded as a dark place of bad food, harsh punishments and ignorant men. One of our objects must be to create a situation where a degree at the Al-Azhar Islamic university has as much relative value as a correspondence certificate from the Maharishi University. We must work for the day when the Jihadi ninja suit becomes the working attire of a carnival clown.
He's right, and the power of modern culture against old-age tyranny is a topic I've addressed before. The more I look at the current situation in Iraq, however, the more I believe that the cultural battle and the military battle, while separate, are still so intertwined that cultural gains are tenuous at best. Intransigent elements preventing cultural gains will not compromise; they must be destroyed. Only then can permanent maturation of Iraqi society occur. To echo what I wrote yesterday: the Allies believed they could rebuild Iraq and use the strength of free Iraqis against the Near East terror culture without including actively hostile states like Syria and Iran. It's my growing suspicion that we were wrong, and that the beachhead in Baghdad must be expanded before it is overrun. Iraqis can build a civil society with our help but those on the ground need breathing room.
FEAST FOR THOUGHT: Michael Ledeen weighs in.
GREAT MINDS...: Joel Mowbray is concerned but not worried. And he uses the term "beachhead" as well.
