Central War Planning Famous Last Words
“Well, let’s just hope we’re lucky.”
But it’s interesting that Friedman writes that “One of the first things I realized when visiting Iraq after the U.S. invasion was that the very fact that Iraqis did not liberate themselves, but had to be liberated by Americans, was a source of humiliation to them.” Ah, indeed. The difference between Ron Paul and the rest of them is that Paul thinks that America should be a final cause of the liberty around the world, and McCain and others propagandize (and only propagandize, because they couldn’t care less about freedom, either at home or abroad) that America should be an efficient cause of liberty.
This philosopher’s talk translates as follows: according to libertarians, we should make ourselves as beautiful and free as possible and by means of that serve as an example for others to imitate. According to warmongers and killers of every stripe, on the contrary, we should violently interfere into random countries’ politics in order to bring about the results desired by the state. The former is a recipe for prosperity and peace and indeed, liberty. The latter, for endless war and misery.
Of course, the America’s impact on Iraq can hardly be characterized as “liberation.” But regardless, Friedman’s quote nicely illustrates the point that paternalism cannot be a permanent strategy either with individuals (because it fails to soul-make) or with countries (because ideology which ultimately controls the political system cannot be imposed by force but only adopted via voluntary learning).