The Iraqis, that’s who.

Usually, condescending leftists and liberals respond to pro-globalization conservatives and libertarians by saying that Third Worlders and the like are perfectly capable of deciding what is in their own interests. If they don’t want to give up their traditional lifestyles, they’ll say, who are we to say they should. It’s a fair argument, though I’m often stunned by their hypocrisy since these are usually the exact same people who advocate purging any hint of traditionalism in our own society. Living in misery and poverty is a cherished tradition in, say, Guatemala but holding a door open for a woman or, heaven forbid, mothers staying home to raise children is a sign of anarchic bigotry in our own culture.

Whatever.

But in the case of Iraq not even this condescending cognitive dissonance applies. The people seeking power through violence in Iraq, much like the government of Saddam Hussein before them, do not represent the popular desires of the majority of Iraqis. At least that’s what we’ve been lead to believe by countless polls and the testimonials of all sorts aid workers, soldiers, diplomats and lefty human rights groups. Moreover, whether most Iraqis agree with Moktada al-Sadr or not is almost beside the point. Any reasonable person, on the left or right, has to agree that civil war and chaos is not in the long term interests of the Iraqi people. The Americans are committed to reconstruction, democratization and prosperity of Iraq. Shooting Americans and each other doesn’t help that process – and it’s wrong, of course. In others words, you can make the case that it’s in America’s interests to bug out of Iraq, it’s virtually impossible to make a reasonable case that it’s in Iraq’s interests for America to bug out.

So, when we talk about how the US should have done this or that, or how the Bush administration has botched or blown one thing or another, let’s also keep in mind that according to literally any rational set of criteria, laid or by the left or the right, the Iraqi people are the ones who are blowing it the most – both the ones shooting in the streets and the ones hiding in their homes. Sure, they’ve got reasons and excuses, including having been brutalized, propagandized and badly educated, but those excuses don’t change the fact that “blaming the victim” in a sense is appropriate. The Iraqis, broadly speaking, are fools for doing what they’re doing right now. And the only way to see it otherwise, it seems to me, is if you do not subscribe to the view that Iraqis are rational people.