Garth George: Americans don't have what it takes to fix postwar Iraq

I have never had any doubts about the propriety of the United States invading Iraq to get rid of Saddam Hussein. And I am unconcerned that so far there is no sign of any significant quantities of chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction.

The merciless Saddam and his two brutish brats were themselves weapons of mass destruction sufficient to justify the operation. The number of Iraqis who died as a result of the invasion was just a small fraction of those killed by Saddam, his sons and their henchmen.

The taking of Iraq was a walkover simply because those who rule by terror and brutality are invariably cowards. Witness the disappearance of the Hussein family the moment the Americans and British crossed the borders.

They are no doubt skulking in some hideaway somewhere, paying for their concealment with money stolen from the nation and its people. I suspect that when the money runs out they will be given up, for that is how things work in that part of the world.

The unfortunate thing is that now that the regime has been toppled and the land secured, the US Administration just doesn't seem to know what to do to get the nation back on its feet.

And Americans are shocked and hurt that some Iraqi people are turning against the invaders instead of being grateful and behaving themselves and co-operating in the rebuilding of their country.

Some things never change - and one of them is American foreign policy concepts which have led the US into messy situations (Vietnam is the worst example among several) since the end of World War II.

Where the Americans always fall down is in their seemingly unbreakable belief that "one-size-fits-all", an almost complete inability to understand that in other parts of the world there are huge social, religious, cultural, economic, philosophical, humane and political differences.

As an insular, self-absorbed society, Americans - including, unfortunately, this unworldly President and some of his advisers - never seem to grasp that not everyone wants to live the way they do, and that all over the world nations have their own standards and ways of doing things.

So they just keep trying to ram one-size-fits-all down everyone's throat and when it doesn't work they get all sulky. And if they try to introduce their own particular brand of representative democracy into a theocratic, ethnic, tribal Iraq, they are bound to fail.

The best thing they could do is get out of the place and leave it to the United Nations to pick up the pieces. The UN - with nations such as Britain, France, Spain, Holland and Germany whose histories are redolent with colonial experience - has a much better chance of making something of Iraq than the Americans ever will.

In the meantime there is considerable resentment in the US over the aftermath of the war. My mate in Chicago puts it this way: "Have we made mistakes? Yes. Have we irritated people all over the world with our abrasiveness, wealth, and hubris? Yes. Do we deserve universal contempt? No.

"In fact, the nations of the world have a desperately short collective memory. Without the US you Kiwis would be speaking Japanese and the British and French would be speaking German.

"I resent the attacks the US has taken, and is taking - usually based in the Ugly American epithet. In Chicago I could show you why. Chicago is an enormous polyglot - Indians, Pakistanis, Iranians, Arabs of all nationalities, religion and culture, Asians of all types, Russians, Serbs, Poles, Somalis, Croats, Turks, Israelis - all living and working side by side in ethnic neighbourhoods that are virtual duplicates of the countries they came from.

"These people succeed here where they fail in their own countries because in those countries the social, political and religious systems are in every way inferior to ours - and they hate us for it. Too many of their countries are virtual police states, and they exploit our freedoms and then complain about the US - which is just the opposite.

"Is the US rich and fat and the object of envy? Absolutely, even by those who come here and profit. In a very short time white will be the minority colour. This is not a bad thing. So many of these newcomers have brought vitality, energy and enterprise to us - diversity is welcomed and encouraged.

"The whole world practises a double standard when it comes to judge the US. And judge us and condemn us they do - every day.

"They hate America, but they love to live here. They hate us but they love our tolerance and opportunity."

I have a great deal of sympathy for my friend's frustrations.

But in the meantime Americans in general, and their leaders in particular, still cannot understand that there are lots of people in the world who don't believe that if they adopt the American way, eat hamburgers and drink Coca-Cola everything will be all right.

* Email Garth George

Herald Feature: Iraq