"The cycle of violence"
This entry was posted on 7/10/2006 9:35 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
At the end of
King Lear Cordelia dies even though the villain has repented and tries to save her. I thought of that yesterday, when Sunnis were massacred in west Baghdad while Iraq's neighbors all endorsed the Prime Minister's plan for national reconciliation. Talking about "the cycle of violence" is usually a way to throw up your hands and avoid assigning blame for specific acts of violence. But there's an element of truth to the phrase, which is why people keep using it. The natural tendency of things is to fall apart, to be destroyed. It's easy, in a lot of ways, to start violence. But it's probably impossible for one man (or group) to stop violence, even if he started it in the first place.
It's even too optimistic to say that Iraq's leaders and the men directing the insurgency are trying to stop the violence. The hard-core of the insurgency seems just as committed as ever, and despite hopeful talk that they're only a small group they've managed to keep striking despite the new security program in Baghdad. And the Shiite militias have goals—simple revenge, consolidating their power, saving lives in their communities—that may make violence a more sensible option than "reconciliation" right now. It's easy to say that murdering civilians won't make you more powerful or make your community safer. And in many cases that may be true. But while murder is evil, it's not always counter-productive. Saddam Hussein used murder and torture to terrorize and intimidate his opponents and it worked well for him for several decades. It would be nice if terrible behavior never benefited the people who engage in it, but that's pretty clearly not the case.
I wrote a
piece for Time's website today and mention the "logic" of massacres and counter-massacres in Iraq. I didn't use that word flippantly. What's going on here is immoral and in many cases evil. But while I'm sure some of the violence is driven by rage that doesn't make it stupid or irrational. That's why it's so hard to stop.
