As it is the 29th of February, let me perform an uncustomary retraction. Looking back over the history of the last 10 years, through which I have been writing these columns, I’m now persuaded of a major misjudgment. While I supported the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq — still do, and “would do it again” without qualms — I see ever more clearly that the “Bush doctrine” of exporting “democracy” was an unnecessary mistake.
Our interests in these countries were military; we had dangerous enemies to destroy. That was achieved with dispatch by U.S. and allied forces: with remarkably few casualties all round. We had a continued interest in preventing the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan, and in the destruction of Islamist cells in Iraq. All fine and good: these were necessary adventures, for the defence of legitimate western interests.
I was never comfortable with the grand bureaucratic project of “nation building” that followed. But while I hinted at my objections, I nevertheless conferred the benefit of the doubt on an American-led project, predicated on post-War successes in Germany and Japan.
In retrospect, the circumstances were so utterly different, and the times so utterly changed, that the mission was unachievable, and could only come to grief.
