History lesson

OK, 2007 is upon us, and the end of history, as in Francis Fukuyama’s fearless forecast of 1990, has turned out to be full of you-know-what. In fact, never in seven centuries, give or take a few, has this planet of ours been in more turmoil. Fukuyama is a great scholar, and he meant well, but what he got wrong was religious fervour and human nature. Basically, the urge to control one another’s behaviour. Better yet, the incompatibility of Islamic beliefs and liberal democracy. Let’s begin with Iraq.

Uncle Sam’s wrongheaded attempt to placate Sunni Arabs has failed utterly. For all the rhetoric against Shiite shenanigans, it’s the Sunnis who have destroyed Iraq. The Saudis are threatening to fund the insurgents if the Americans pull out, but that’s the biggest bluff since Bill Clinton threatened to punch a Washington pundit on the nose for writing something unkind about the ghastly Hillary. The Saudis have made whores of everyone in Washington, starting with Bush and Cheney, but the day Riyadh invades Mesopotamia to safeguard their fellow Sunnis, I will lead the Gay and Lesbian parade down Piccadilly. The Saudis could have undercut the Sunni insurgency in 2003; instead they bankrolled it and continue to do so.

The only way America can prevail in that miserable country is by deploying more troops, mounting foot patrols, cracking down on Shia and Sunni militias, imposing zero tolerance on weapons possession and disarming all private security elements in Baghdad. In other words, an almost impossible task. To all intents and purposes, Iraq is lost. No use spilling more blood. If I were living in the White House, I would declare defeat and get out. The country would splinter, and the region would remain as unstable as it is today, but as time wounds all heels, things would eventually revert to normal.