A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE A Matter of Principle Humanitarian Arguments for War in Iraq EDITED BY Thomas Cushman UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2005 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A matter of principle : humanitarian arguments for war in Iraq / edited by Thomas Cushman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0-520-24486-9 (cloth : alk. paper)— isbn 0-520-24555-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Iraq War, 2003—Moral and ethical aspects. I. Cushman, Thomas, 1959– ds79.76.m38 2005 956.7044'31—dc22 2004027416 Manufactured in the United States of America 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 10987654321 Printed on Ecobook 50 containing a minimum 50% post-consumer waste, processed chlorine free. The balance contains virgin pulp, including 25% Forest Stewardship Council Certified for no old growth tree cutting, processed either tcf or ecf. The sheet is acid-free and meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z39.48-1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).' This book is dedicated to all of those who have lost their lives in Iraq in the struggle against tyranny and for the human rights of the Iraqi people. Contents Acknowledgments / xi Introduction: The Liberal-Humanitarian Case for War in Iraq thomas cushman / 1 PART ONE RECONSIDERING REGIME CHANGE 1 The Case for Regime Change christopher hitchens / 29 2 Liberal Legacies, Europe’s Totalitarian Era, and the Iraq War: Historical Conjunctures and Comparisons jeffrey herf / 39 3 “Regime Change”: The Case of Iraq jan narveson / 57 4 In the Murk of It: Iraq Reconsidered mitchell cohen / 76 PART TWO PHILOSOPHICAL ARGUMENTS 5 National Interest and International Law roger scruton / 95 6 Just War against an “Outlaw” Region mehdi mozaffari / 106 7 Moral Arguments: Sovereignty, Feasibility, Agency, and Consequences daniel kofman / 125 PART THREE CRITIQUES OF THE LEFT 8 A Friendly Drink in a Time of War paul berman / 147 9 Wielding the Moral Club ian buruma / 152 10 Peace, Human Rights, and the Moral Choices of the Churches mient jan faber / 160 11 Ethical Correctness and the Decline of the Left jonathan rée / 179 12 Pages from a Daily Journal of Argument norman geras / 191 13 Liberal Realism or Liberal Idealism: The Iraq War and the Limits of Tolerance richard just / 207 PART FOUR EUROPEAN DIMENSIONS 14 Iraq and the European Left john lloyd / 223 15 Guilt’s End: How Germany Redefined the Lessons of Its Past during the Iraq War richard herzinger / 233 16 The Iraq War and the French Left michel taubmann / 243 17 Tempting Illusions, Scary Realities, or the Emperor’s New Clothes II anders jerichow / 259 PART FIVE SOLIDARITY 18 Antitotalitarianism as a Vocation: An Interview with Adam Michnik thomas cushman and adam michnik / 271 19 Sometimes, a War Saves People jose ramos-horta / 281 20 Gulf War Syndrome Mark II: The Case for Siding with the Iraqi People johann hari / 285 21 “They Don’t Know One Little Thing” pamela bone / 297 22 “Why Did It Take You So Long to Get Here?” ann clwyd / 309 PART SIX LIBERAL STATESMANSHIP 23 Full Statement to the House of Commons, 18 March 2003 tony blair / 329 24 The Threat of Global Terrorism tony blair / 340 Contributors / 353 Index / 361 Acknowledgments I would like to thank, first and foremost, the authors of the essays in this volume for ratifying my idea for it with their participation and sup- port. Any edited volume is only as good as the authors whose works constitute it. The authors also deserve hearty praise for meeting strin- gent deadlines and for their intellectual bravery in putting forth their alternative visions of the war in Iraq. They have convinced me through their writings that politics as a vocation is truly alive. Special thanks are due to Kevin Alexander, my personal editorial assistant, who worked tirelessly and responsibly on all aspects of this project. Without his assistance, this book and other projects would never have seen the light of day. My intellectual accomplishments over the last year are a direct consequence of Kevin’s diligent aid. A special debt of gratitude is due to my friends Jonathan Imber, Jeffrey Grady, John Rodden, Nicolas de Warren, James Tucker, Greg Gomez, Guy MacLean Rogers, and Richard Wilson, who offered me personal and professional support at various times during the project. Although they may not always agree with my views, or the views put forth in this volume, they understand that true friendship is beyond pol- itics. A note of special thanks is due, as well, to my father, Orton Cush- man, who has unfailingly continued to offer his support and assistance to me over the years. xi xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am also especially grateful to some of my colleagues and friends at Wellesley College and elsewhere who took the time to listen to rehearsals of my arguments and ideas about the war, even if they did not share my political stance on the war. You know who you are. True liberalism and intellectual diversity are rare in the contemporary aca- demic world but not yet extinct. Jens Kruse, professor of German at Wellesley, and Nicolas de Warren, assistant professor of philosophy at Wellesley, deserve a special note of thanks for agreeing to take on with short notice the expert translations of Richard Herzinger’s and Michel Taubmann’s essays that appear in this volume. I would also like to thank my editor at the University of California Press, Reed Malcolm, for supporting the vision of this volume and for making it possible to publish a rather dissident vision of the Iraq war. My wife, Carol Hartigan, and my daughters, Sophie and Eliza, deserve special field commendations for enduring the many times when I brought the Iraq war into the blissful space of our family life. They understand that the realities of the world do not stop at the doorstep of hearth and home, even though sometimes it is better that they should. Introduction The Liberal-Humanitarian Case for War in Iraq THOMAS CUSHMAN hat exactly was the war in Iraq? It has alternately been seen as a move to protect the national security of the United States in Wlight of the tragedy of September 11; a preventive war of self- defense against terrorism; a way to foster stability, security, and democ- racy in the Middle East; a counter to arms proliferation and support of terrorism around the world; an exercise in the expansion of the Ameri- can empire and protection of American material interests in the region; a war for oil; an illegal act of aggression that has fostered hatred of the United States and helped to strengthen Islamist fundamentalists in Iraq and elsewhere; and a humanitarian intervention and an act of liberation from totalitarianism in the service of human rights and democracy. The debates about the Iraq war have been strident and polarizing at the level of personal and cultural interaction, international relations, and intellectual and political discourse. This volume consists primarily of essays by leading world political figures, writers, scholars, and activists who supported the war on what might be broadly called liberal-humanitarian grounds; a few authors who did not support the war offer some observations about the politi- cal response to it. What unites the authors is a common recognition that, in spite of the inconsistent justifications provided by the United 1 2 THOMAS CUSHMAN States and its allies and the conflict-ridden process of social reconstruc- tion, the war can be seen as morally justifiable: Saddam Hussein was a brutal tyrant, a gross violator of human rights, a torturer, a mass mur- derer, a force of global instability and terror, a threat to world peace and to what John Rawls refers to as the Law of Peoples. For more than three decades, his crimes against humanity, wars of aggression, support of international terrorism, and volatility as a destabilizing force were tolerated, aided, and abetted by world powers and the international community for the sake of political expediency, stability, and material interests. Coming to the rescue and aid of a people who had been sub- jected to decades of brutality and crimes against humanity is entirely con- sistent with the basic liberal principle of solidarity with the oppressed and the fundamental humanitarian principle of rescue. The war can be seen as morally legitimate on grounds of basic human rights as embod- ied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is the ethical basis for the international world order. This body of moral principles was ignored by the United Nations Security Council in the case of the Iraqi people in favor of adherence to statutory international law. Seeing the Iraq war as justifiable on moral and ethical grounds is a distinct minority view within the liberal community. Even Human Rights Watch, which played a significant role in documenting the heinous crimes of Saddam’s regime, claimed that the Iraq war was not a humanitarian war on the grounds that it was not motivated by the humanitarian concern of preventing genocide (this view leaving unan- swered the question, Is prevention of genocide the only legitimate rea- son for humanitarian intervention?).1 The arguments by the United States that it was removing a tyrant fell flat against the recognition that the United States had once supported Saddam Hussein in his brutal war against Iran. Moreover, the United States failed to remove the despot after its victory in the first Gulf War; instead, it fostered Iraqi resistance to Saddam but cruelly abandoned that resistance to the brutal retalia- tion of the Baath regime.