Questions from the American Civil War: Can they help in Iraq?

It’s pretty obvious that George Bush is a victim of America’s Achilles Heel. The United States is not an ‘organic’ country, as most historians point out, but an idea. It is based on the concepts of the documents that came out of the War of Independence. Part of the President’s assumptions going into Iraq was that all peoples of the world are rational in the Western sense. Remove the dictator and the natural urge of citizens would rise up and install a democratic bourgeois republic. Russia proved it, after dropping communism for the American model.

But the United States had to pay the price for its ideas in blood, twice. The American Revolution and the Civil War were all about ideology. And that sacrifice to prove the idea is a gift to the world. Germany after World War II and the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet empire confirmed that Americans did not die in vain. They demonstrated that the rational ideas about the nature of humans can be replicated anywhere in the world, if people just accept it and don’t fight it. The heads of mankind can solve the hearts of mankind. There is more power to go around for the elite and the average person in the creation of wealth over simple repression.

The might of the Constitution is holding up well. As the cyclical power of the Religious Right peaks, once again the country has resisted the totalitarian impulses that religion can insist upon in its agenda for Salvation. The gravity of a Supreme Court Justice to defend liberty is as deep and serious as any theologian penetrating the mysteries of God-given wisdom.

U.S. generals warn that Iraq is on the verge of civil war. Perhaps policy makers should go back and learn some lessons from those great conflicts in America’s past. What could be learned that could help guide the current adventure in the land that spawned civilization?

The Civil War was about large forces colliding. The Union could not use its advantage in strength to beat Robert E. Lee on the battlefield until it decided that the war was about the abolition of slavery. It wasn’t apparent at the time, but this one idea held the key to hold the republic together. It struck at the heart of the South, its economic survival system, the heart of the separation issue, the illogic of reality versus the ideas of freedom in the Constitution. By freeing slaves, the economy of the Confederacy would crumble. By crossing that line, the leap to the benefit of total war was made. General Sherman’s ‘March to the Sea’ to destroy everything else that supported the enemy was a natural corollary when that one line was crossed. The common prejudice against African Americans kept the key blurry at the start of the war. It was thought a political question. Six hundred thousand dead Americans showed how deep President Lincoln had to go to get to the real issue. From there, magically U. S. Grant showed up to use the weight of the North to squash the rebellion.

What is the heart of the matter in Iraq? What is the perceptual impediment in the White House? What is the equivalent of slavery in the Muslim world that will remove the keystone and make the dominoes tumble? What is America afraid to face in the comfort of 6000 miles from the front?

The assumption of President Bush is essentially correct. People want peace, prosperity and democracy. Who doesn’t? Instead of preaching to Islam, the United States should simply be asking questions. Make them think for themselves. ‘Do you want democracy? Do you want the terrorists running your lives? What is more important to you, the love for your family or the control of the Imams? What is the difference between Saddam Hussein and the militias? Is there security in clinging to the gun in fear?

Don’t answer the questions. Just keep asking them. The truth will come out within them. Their minds will consider the contradictions. Their minds will not like their reality versus their answers. We don’t need to preach. We don’t need to shoot. The American Revolution happened, despite Britain giving in to every demand of the Thirteen Colonies. One Tea Tax was all that was needed to crystallize the rebels’ issue and effected the change.

Ask the questions, America. All peoples of the world want the same thing. You figured it out. They can too. Don’t make the answers for them. The answers will rise to the surface all on their own. Every question is a problem. All problems demand a solution. Right now someone else is controlling the questions.

Just questions. That’s all. It’s the sword that cuts through culture. Questions undermine authority.