Max makes a very important point, often overlooked, whether the subject is Iraq or other horrors, either in the interests of washing one’s hands–these people are only fit for tyranny (c.f. “realists,” re: Arabs or Russians)–or of denunciation (fingering evil peoples: Daniel Goldhagen, William L. Shirer).

Simon Schama addressed this point in the context of the French Revolution, in writing about the September Massacres.

“In France, until very recently, the literature on the September massacres was dominated either by counter-revolutionary martyrology or the massive volume by Pierre Caron….[His book], which is still cited reverentially by historians, is a monument of intellectual cowardice and moral self-delusion…..Caron argued that the massacres were, somehow, no one’s responsibility. Rather, they were the inevitable product of impersonal historical forces [such as] mass fear….Obviously, the killing of at least fouteen hundred people in cold blood was the consequence of some sort of phobic condition. [But] the killings were the work of specific, identifiable human agencies. And there is no shortage whatsoever of sources describing those acts, which the historian can concentrate his attention on if he so chooses.” (Citizens, chapter 15).

To which we should add, re: Iraq, that the identifiable human agencies have identifiable human motives, chiefly power, greed and pride.