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Questions from the heartland

I gave a talk yesterday at the University of Scranton, a city that prides itself on once having been the anthracite coal capital of the world.  I’m not sure this is the heartland, but it is as close as I’ve been to that ill-defined geographical feature lately.  I asked for questions early in my presentation, which was on current war and peace issues.  Here’s what was on the audience’s minds:

• Does the US have to be the world’s policeman?
• Is the US too closely aligned with Israel?
• What is the legacy of the Iraq war?
• Why do we prop up dictators?
• How and when do wars end?
• Do we need a court to decide on whether to strike with drones?
• Is fundamentalism a big threat?
• In light of our financial problems and sequestration, do we need to bring back the draft?
• Is it counterproductive to isolate North Korea and Iran, whose people seem much less hostile to the US than their regimes?

As on many other occasions when I’ve sp0ken with a lay audience, these questions are really good ones.  They reflect unease with America’s role in the world and a feeling that surely we can do better.

I’m not quite ready to publish the powerpoint tour d’horizon I gave, which covered mainly the Middle East and Asia.  But here is a brief summary of the answers I offered to these questions, improved a bit on reflection:

• Does the US have to be the world’s policeman?

We really shouldn’t be the world’s policeman, but we do need to be prepared to be the world’s fireman.  There are fires that need to be put out before they spread and cause a lot of damage.  And firemen properly spend a lot of time and effort on prevention.  I also noted that there are different methods of policing:  when we do intervene, we need to consider whether we should use force or act more like community police, who rely less on force and more on their rapport with the community.

• Is the US too closely aligned with Israel?

The Israel question was posed with some hesitation, even embarrassment.  My simplistic answer is that we are too aligned with particular political parties within Israel that do not want to see the emergence of a Palestinian state.  But most Israelis do want to see the Palestinian state, as that is vital to maintaining Israel as both Jewish and democratic.

• What is the legacy of the Iraq war?

The Iraq war has ended messily, with Prime Minister Maliki far from the democratic ideal.  But there are lots of Kurds, Sunni and even Shia in Iraq who can keep his worst instincts in check.  We’ll have to see how things work out this year in the provincial elections and next year in national elections.

• Why do we prop up dictators?

We shouldn’t prop up dictators, but we have to deal with them until a country’s citizens decide they’ve had enough.  We should then support non-violent efforts (because they work far more often than violent ones) and help with the transition to democracy, as we have tried to do in Tunisia and Egypt.

• How and when do wars end?

The question about how and when wars end is a very good one.  We were particularly inept in ending the Iraq and Afghanistan wars without signed peace agreements.  This left the door open to insurgencies that would have been far more difficult to mount had we insisted on formal surrenders.  We need a debate on ending the war on terror, which has real consequences for American liberties.

• Do we need a court to decide on whether to strike with drones?

I really don’t know whether drone court is a good idea.  But there too I think we need a debate.  We’ve gone from prohibiting assassinations to conducting them often, in the name of striking the command and control of our terrorist enemies.  There is collateral damage to non-combatants.  It’s a big policy shift that requires more attention than it has gotten.

• Is fundamentalism a big threat?

I don’t really care about what people believe in the privacy of their own homes, churches, synagogues and mosques.  They are entitled.  But fundamentalism is a threat if it seeks to undermine the institutions that maintain peace and stability, just as Fascism and Communism tried to do.  If your ideology says none of the states of the Middle East should exist–only a single caliphate ruled by clerics–and you are prepared to use violent means to achieve that end, you are correctly seen as a threat.

• In light of our financial problems and sequestration, do we need to bring back the draft?

The draft is a non-issue, because the military does not want two-year draftees.  Military technology is just too complicated today to make them valuable. Sequestration nevertheless has serious implications for both our military and civilian instruments for projecting power.  We are going to have to think hard about priorities.

• Is it counterproductive to isolate North Korea and Iran, whose people seem much less hostile to the US than their regimes?

It would be a mistake for us not to react to countries like North Korea and Iran that are acquiring nuclear weapons.  But we do need to recognize that the isolation we impose with sanctions has consequences also for their citizens.  Outreach and improved understanding with them is both necessary and possible, but outside government channels.  We need to exploit communications technology more effectively for citizen-to-citizen communication.