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Yogthos

For those too young to have lived through what happened twenty years ago, a thread of self-styled left/liberal types endorsing the invasion of Iraq

The New York Times Magazine The American Empire (get Used to It) by Michael Ignatief
21 Mar 2023 at 16:39 | Open on mas.to
7 comments
Yogthos

Michael Ignatieff's infamous NYT magazine cover story from January 2003 (Ignatieff was founding director of Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights)

nytimes.com/2003/01/05/magazin

America's empire is not like empires of times past, built on colonies, conquest and the white man's burden. We are no longer in the era of the United Fruit Company, when American corporations needed the Marines to secure their investments overseas. The 21st century imperium is a new invention in the annals of political science, an empire lite, a global hegemony whose grace notes are free markets, human rights and democracy, enforced by the most awesome military power the world has ever known. It is the imperialism of a people who remember that their country secured its independence by revolt against an empire, and who like to think of themselves as the friend of freedom everywhere. It is an empire without consciousness of itself as such, constantly shocked that its good intentions arouse resentment abroad. But that does not make it any less of an empire, with a conviction that it alone, in Herman Melville's words, bears ''the ark of the liberties of the world."
21 Mar 2023 at 17:21 | Open on mas.to
Yogthos

New Yorker editor David Remnick's "case" for invasion, 26 January 2003 newyorker.com/magazine/2003/02

The United States has been wrong, politically and morally, about Iraq more than once in the past; Washington has supported Saddam against Iran and overlooked some of his bloodiest adventures. The price of being wrong yet again could be incalculable. History will not easily excuse us if, by deciding not to decide, we defer a reckoning with an aggressive totalitarian leader who intends not only to develop weapons of mass destruction but also to use them. Saddam's abdication, or a military coup, would be a godsend; his sudden conversion to the wisdom of disarmament almost as good. It is a fine thing to dream. But, assuming such dreams are not realized, a return to a hollow pursuit of containment will be the most dangerous option of all.
21 Mar 2023 at 17:22 | Open on mas.to
Yogthos

New York Times executive editor Bill Keller, "The I-Can't-Believe-I'm-a-Hawk Club," 8 February 2003
nytimes.com/2003/02/08/opinion

We reluctant hawks may disagree among ourselves about the most compelling logic for war -- protecting America, relieving oppressed Iragis or reforming the Middle East -- but we generally agree that the logic for standing pat does not hold. Much as we might wish the administration had orchestrated events so the inspectors had a year instead of three months, much as we deplore the arrogance and binary moralism, much as we worry about all the things that could go wrong, we are hard pressed to see an alternative that is not built on wishful thinking.
21 Mar 2023 at 17:22 | Open on mas.to
Simon Brooke

@yogthos So how is history judging you now, David Remnick?

#IraqWar

21 Mar 2023 at 18:00 | Open on mastodon.scot
DELETED

@yogthos Ah, yes, the golden age of "The Sensible Liberal"(TM).

22 Mar 2023 at 15:50 | Open on wandering.shop
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