By Koh Jie Kai
Once more, Minister Mentor Lee inflicts his wisdom upon the world – this time, telling America that it should not be pulling out of Iraq.
Yet for all you cynics out there, don’t dismiss Mr Lee’s opinion as a vanity stunt. I think the man is trying to get the attention of congressmen and other important people in Washington DC.
He would not be publishing his opinion in the Washington Post, a serious and respectable broadsheet, otherwise.
Mr Lee must be very alarmed by the prospect that Barack Obama will win the presidency over John McCain in coming American presidential elections, (see here) presumably because he believes that Mr Obama will carry out his promise (threat?) to remove American troops from Iraq recklessly, in contrast to Mr McCain, who vows to station troops in Iraq for a hundred years if necessary.
The result, Mr Lee believes, would be disaster, for all the reasons he outlines in his Washington Post article.
And in fact, I actually agree with Mr Lee that a hasty American withdrawal would probably be disastrous, and not just because Iran and other assorted religious fanatics would be emboldened. An American withdrawal – or at least an American withdrawal involving Iraq being carved up by its neighbours into Sunni and Shiite dominated bits, with a Kurdistan on top of it all – would be a recipe for civil war and genocide.
Hardly a far-fetched scenario- as much as the Americans seem to be despised in Iraq, the alternative seems to be worse – one Baghdad resident was quoted this week on the BBC as saying that there would be a massacre if the Americans leave.
And to me, that seems to be the weakness in Mr Obama’s Iraq strategy, likeable though he is. Suppose Mr Obama does become president, but despite all his charm, doesn’t manage to convince the rest of the world to send in the necessary troops to secure Iraq, and finds that Iraqi politicians are determined to carve up the country Yugoslavia-style, and that the neighbours are more interested in staking out their own spheres of influence in the bits of Iraq left over rather than keeping the country stable and together. What then? Would Mr Obama rather pull out American troops than resist this surefire recipe for ethnic cleansing?
One final thing: Mr Lee believes that “taking out Saddam Hussein was the right decision”, but also thinks that “mistakes were subsequently made”. This is an odd thing to say on hindsight, given that no weapons of mass destruction from Saddam’s regime have been found.
Mr Lee probably meant to say that he believes that deposing the Saddam regime was a good decision at the time because it seemed in 2003 that Saddam was possessing weapons of mass destruction; that George Bush went into Iraq with the best of intentions.
Yet I think that there was an element of wishful thinking on Mr Lee’s part as well – that George Bush, supported by his experienced loyalists Cheney and Rumsfeld, couldn’t possibly go into a war based on faulty intelligence and botch up its execution badly; that they couldn’t possibly take Wolfowitz and other Neo-cons too seriously; in other words, that they couldn’t possibly do everything possible to open up a pandora’s box of sectarian hatred. Unfortunately for all of us, they did. And so it came to pass that Mr Lee overestimated the competence of our American allies.
By the way, don’t keep your hopes up on the government admitting that supporting the Iraq war was a bad idea on hindsight anytime soon- I put that question to Dr Ng Eng Hen, Second Minister for Defence, last year at a ministerial forum; he avoided the question and spoke instead on how we were supporting the war on terror.
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CelluloidReality,
I disagree with you. You conceded that S’pore is a small country so needs the leverage..etc. Switzerland is also a small country, so what happened to your syllogism? As I remembered it, when it suited LKY to be neutral, he always had some convincing arguments for it,and would button up the ground to any opposition. He was once anti-US and he could “tell the US to pack up within 24 hrs anytime he wanted to..” Those days, he had to balance between Mao’s China, Russia and the US. These days, Russia is no more, China is a progressive nation with capitalist tendencies, but the U.S. is now more dangerous and exhibits aggressive hegemonistic policies under the guise of democracy but in reality, oil politics. There is no reason to be pro-US; in fact, because of our strategic position, the US needs us more than we need them politically. If anything, S’pore can use China as a hedge to balance off strong US pressures. After all, China’s rulers have a lot of trust and confidence in LKY and S’pore. China moreover shows a more acceptable face in the ME and has a more agreeable foreign policy towards the ME problem because it supports action thru the UN. US is so pro-Israel that Singapore supporting it has actually courted more suspicions and distrust in SE Asia if not committing suicide for a future generation.
CR
Don’t you think that the JI’s plans to bomb Singapore had a lot to do with our naked and VERY LOUD pro-US stance?!!! If we had been more neutral with the US, we cld have save ourselves a lot of trouble. Now we have also to spend so much resources unnecessarily and incur economic downtime (lorries spending 15hrs at the causeway to be searched..) to capture the escaped JI convict! And who is paying? You and me – the taxpayers!
My suggestion for Referendum, when our Armed Personnels are to be sent for oversea military mission has received a negative and opposing view from CelluloidReality and no others has view on the Issue.
It seems to me that Singaporeans by and large are truly a patriotic lot and are ready to be deployed anywhere, anytime as the Regime dictates.
I am ashame of myself for suggesting the Referendum.
RH:
1. To briefly rebut CelluloidReality, please read my blog article “Govt By Referendum” to see why it is not only possible but easy with today’s instant and very advanced communications, on a tiny 42km x 23km island. Url:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-wrote-it.blogspot.com/search/label/RH%3A%20Government%20by%20Referendum
2. CelluloidReality also seems to suggest that LIE KY LHL PAP sending soldiers to Iraq is a good [only] way to gain ‘combat’ experience. This is stupid. American prostitutes like BLAIR and LIE KY LHL PAP send soldiers NOT to gain combat experience or to support a fair and just cause, but to suck up to Bush so that, in the case of BLAIR, he got a 1-minute standing ovation when invited to a joint session of Congress to give a speech.
3. Britain is an island fortress with probably the biggest military in the EU, so no threats to its security. BLAIR sent British soldiers to die so that he gets invited to speak to Congress. Plus his now being given millions by American companies and universities, plus paid speaking engagements to American audiences. When leaders prostitute, we die, while they get applause and nice phone calls from BUSH.
4. To gain combat experience is the stupidest excuse when our soldiers operate only on the fringes of the illegal Occupation in Iraq.
A big fish in a small pond? LKY believed that American will listen to him just like his cabinet ministers. American is well known for their indepence thinking, they are not fellower like we SinKaporean. They do not take any interest outside their immediate surrounding. To be able to inflence them, LKY had to do more like send the SAF to part take in the war. That would goes down well with SinKaporean? It’s all talk and no action as far as the American public is concerned. I think he is over rating himself and for the few American who had travelled widely and know something of SinKapore, their views of the country is not exactly good or printable. We had a mirage in SinKapore, nice clean and prosperous but looke deeper, there are many layers of poverty, suffering that is due to gahment delect and high handedness. When we SinKaporean say we have no curruption in SinKapore, we failed to mention that we had legalised it so it is legal and hence no curruption. Who make the laws? Sadly SinKapore is fast becoming a country with little or no maral value, take whatever you can regardless how it is done. Cheating is the name of the game. The value of trust is worthless. We must bear in mind what we have to do come the next GE. Send clear measage to this tyrant that his time is up and we had grown up and would like to think for ourself. Take his ill gotten wealth and familee to anywhere in the world that want him. Just keep reminding yourself and all around you what all of us must do come GE. God Bless.