Following my last post
The real lesson of Iraq: there are no good interventions. several people got in touch to remind me of the Vietnamese intervention in Cambodia. There seems to be a consensus that the only ever good intervention in the entire history of humanity is that one. I stand corrected, the generalisation was inaccurate. Because the Vietnamese intervention in Cambodia was the exception. There's a phrase about rules and exceptions that I can't remember now, but it will come to me.
A suggested change to the title: "The real lesson of Iraq: There are no good imperialist interventions."
ReplyDeleteIt was otherwise a brilliant piece, I think.
The exception proves the rule.
ReplyDeleteTanzania's intervention in Uganda is another one, perhaps.
ReplyDeleteI supose one of the reasons Blair was so misguided was because of his genuinely good intervention, the one in Sierra Leone.
ReplyDeleteThis probably allowed him to conflate moral intention with successful outcome.
This is because he was a well meaning idiot, but of course we all know what good intentions pave...
Also Indian intervention in Bangladesh in 1971.
ReplyDeletePossibly also UN/Australasian intervention in East Timor in 1999 and UK in Sierra Leone in 2001. But I agree that most interventions are problematic.