Intervention: We're Doing It Wrong

By Steve Hynd

While news of human rights abuses in Syria are burning up the headlines, it's worth remembering that Libya still has major human rights problems despite Western intervention there, thanks mainly to the plethora of militias run riot. And let us not also forget that Iraq, almost a decade on, still has serious problems with its humanitarian record. Afghanistan's problems post-intervention have never been more manifest than this last week.

The lesson the West took from Iraq and Afghanistan is that it was best to intervene and get out again, rather than try to manage the aftermath. That's why current calls for intervention in Syria, which are often hopelessly unrealistic even on their own terms, usually don't mention any plan to manage the aftermath despite the fact that any such intervention will be destabilizing on a scale comparable to Iraq.

It would be far better to accept the utilitarian principle of "first, do no harm" and not employ military means in pursuit of humanitarian causes at all. After all, the resources involved could be better expended - saving more lives and relieving more misery, fulfilling "for the greatest good of the greatest number" - by non-military aid and development in places where the shooting hasn't started yet.

Comments

[Bill H.]

"The lesson the West took from Iraq and Afghanistan is that it was best to intervene and get out again, rather than try to manage the aftermath."

I'm not sure what planet you're living on if you can seriously make a statement like this. That is precisely the lesson we should have learned, but what possible indication have you seen that we actually learned it? We are still in Afghanistan, for heaven's sake, and are making all of the wrong noises about leaving, and the manner of and "triumphant" rhetoric regarding our exit from Iraq certainly is inconsistent with any such conclusion.

[Steve Hynd]

Hi Bill,

This planet. The "intervene without involvement" paradigm set by Libya has had a lot of play in the foreign policy set. Iraq and Afghanistan? Pshaw, those were last decade's model!

see "A new era in U.S. foreign policy" by Fareed Zakaria.
"What the Libya intervention achieved" by Marc Lynch.

And a whole load more with just a quick search.

And a sceptic: Intervention without responsibility

Regards, Steve

[Bill H.]

Where did Libya come from? You are suddenly talking about Libya? Let me repeat the quote of which I was critical, perhaps with a little emphasis since you seem to have missed the point,

"The lesson the West took from Iraq and Afghanistan is that it was best to intervene and get out again, rather than try to manage the aftermath."

Note that does not say, "The lesson the West took from Libya," it says, "The lesson the West took from Iraq and Afghanistan."

[Steve Hynd]

The lesson the West took fromIraq and Afghanistan, applied to Libya and is now looking to apply elsewhere.