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Occupational hazards
by Brendan O'Neill

...In response to the seeming contradiction between increasing instability and America's standoffish approach, some have demanded a tougher occupation, along the lines of what US forces did in Germany after the Second World War. Commentators have reminisced about 'the most successful instances of occupation and reconstruction the USA has had - in Japan and Germany'. President Bush himself has cited America's German experience, claiming that just as America 'left constitutions and parliaments' in Germany, so it will in Iraq.

...But in postwar Germany, unlike in postwar Iraq, there was something to build on. Germany was a major capitalist state, one of the most powerful nations on Earth. It had an economy and political structures. It had an elite (including many of the old Nazis) who, after a bit of redemocratisatising, could be posted into positions of power. Iraq, by contrast, is a weak and largely artificial state, created by colonialists who drew lines in the sand, and sustained for decades by outside interference, oil revenues and a heavy dose of repression. Chasing out the Ba'ath Party officials - who dominated every aspect of Iraqi society for over 30 years - has left it a hollow state, a world away from postwar Germany....