Occupation

by Phineas Dash

The model currently being punditized for the reconstruction of Iraq is the Marshall Plan and the occupation of Germany and Japan as they were transformed into democracies after World War II.

What no one is mentioning is that the Marshall Plan was not without its critics at the time and since. Not for the generous amount of money that was spent or the overall goal of reconstruction, but because it was a United States-only program.

Albert Einstein was one who opposed the Marshall Plan on these grounds. It was an important moment in establishing the United Nations as a force in postwar order, and Einstein believed that the Marshall Plan should have been under international auspices, specifically through the United Nations.

He also argued that if it was only the United States controlling the reconstruction of western Europe, the Soviet Union would see it as an attempt to establish hegemony in the area, and to threaten the Soviet Union. This in fact is how the Soviets saw the Marshall Plan, and they tightened and expanded control over Eastern Europe. Perhaps the Cold War would have happened anyway, but the Marshall Plan was arguably a factor in creating it.

Now the U.S. wants to establish a min-Marshall Plan for Iraq, which will be seen as establishing American hegemony in the Middle East, the one place in the world where political tensions are similar to those existing in Europe in the 1940s and most of the rest of the century. An international program, through the United Nations, would mitigate this image, and also enrich the possibilities for Iraq's democracy. The American model is not the only "successful" model in the world, and European models or the Japanese model, for instance, might offer more of what Iraq needs.

Of course this would loosen American corporate control over the Iraq economy and its oil. So it's not likely to happen. But it's worth mentioning that the Marshall Plan model is not without danger.

But the one thing the U.S. occupation has going for it is that occupation is boring, and it will soon disappear from the media. Does the media have anything at all to say about the administration of Afghanistan? The troops still in the Balkans? Iraq largely disappeared from view after Bush War I and now that Bush War II is about over, it soon will again.

Massage from the President of Freedonia

Freedonia congratulates America on winning the war in Iraq. You're on a roll, all right. An Iraq and roll. I'll have mine with relish and mustard, but no French bread! Freedonia wanted to be part of the coalition of the willing, but where there's a will there's a way, and there was no way we were going to get involved in something like that! But we'd like to do something for your next war effort, like not be the target of it. We'd lend you a musket but we need that for parades. We have a lot of veterans parades, and a lot of veterans of a lot of parades. Unfortunately we can't afford wars but our veterans don't seem to mind. Oh, they complain now and then, how the young veterans don't know what it's like to have it rain on their parades, but they'd really get upset if we gave away their musket. So the best we can do is contribute one of our national songs, adapted for the occasion by one of our national songwriters. It's not really finished but our national songwriters are. We can't afford to support the arts anymore, now that we've poured all our resources into convincing you to go to war on somebody else. And boy can we pour it on. Now we're all poor. Go reign on somebody else's parade!

Sincerely yours
President Rufus T. Firefly

[To the tune of "Lydia, the Tatooed Lady")

Syria oh Syria
let's go get Syria
Syria, we'll tatoo shady

she's another wayward nation
ready for decapitation

Syria oh Syria
the latest hysteria
on Syria the axis will fall

we've got to round up this whole terrorist crew
maybe we'll get to the Bosphorus too
and claim all the oil for the red white and blue
you can get a lot from Syria!