Iraq: What If We Win?

"Lessons in Humility" is the title of an essay by Francis Fukuyama.

***

This must be what professionals mean when they say that sometimes the jokes write themselves.

I couldn't find an explicitly conservative mission statement inside The American Interest magazine, but you can read between the lines. The fact that Fukuyama is chair of their executive committee is one tip-off. Presenting articles by people like Fukuyama, Robert Kaplan and Richard Perle also makes it clear. That magazine title shouldn't necessarily indicate a slant towards conservatives, but I imagine if you ask why the U.S. needed to support coups against democratically elected governments in Guatemala or Chile, the people who work at this magazine would say because it was in The American Interest to do so.

Anyhow, there's more comedy gold besides Fukuyama's humility in the March/April 2008 issue of the magazine. I hesitate to comment too much about these titles. A few of the entries appear to be in favor of withdrawal, but these supporters of the war are so out of touch. Their symposium titled "Iraq: What If We Win?" includes the following essays (all available online):

"Stay and Win" - Josef Joffe
"Leave or Lose" - Paul Schroeder
"Winning a Civil War?" - James Kurth
"Morale Matters" - Walter Russell Mead
"For the Long Haul" - Philip Zelikow
"Winning Will Resonate" - Robert D. Kaplan
"We Won Years Ago" - Richard Perle