A reader contrasts and compares:
The population of Japan was about 72,000,000 in 1945. There were about 350,000 U.S. troops occupying the country in 1945 (plus another 40,000 allied troops. In terms of residents per soldier, the ratio is approximately 185 Japanese people per occupying soldier.
What about Iraq? The Iraqi population numbers about 26,000,000 people. If you consider only U.S. soldiers (160,000), and exclude the Iraqi Army and other coalition soliders, there are about 163 Iraqis per U.S. soldier. Now, if you add in the contracted private security personnel (many are former soldiers), who number about 100,000, the ratio of Iraqis to armed U.S. soldier or security officer drops from 163 to 100.
Either way, there were significantly fewer occupying soldiers per resident in post-war Japan compared to the present situation in Iraq.
How do we explain the difference between the cases of post-war Japan and Iraq? While not dismissing the extreme Shinto state-religion, militarism and aggression of the Japanese people during the WWII era, there are other cultural and religious factors that are important with respect to the present-day Iraqi situation. I would conjecture one of the most important of these is the issue of politicized Islam. But how to deal with assassins who kill in the name of Allah is a question that Muslims must face. President Bush’s plan to send 20,000 more troops will likely obscure where the ultimate responsibility lays, and prevent the Arab and Muslim worlds, and ultimately Iraqis themselves, from recognizing and assuming the responsibility they face.
Surging the troops by 20,000, or even establishing a police state (Saddam killed hundreds of thousands of people to keep a lid on his kettle of simmering hatreds), will not be not sufficient to quell human beings who are intent on cutting their brothers’ throats.
I agree. Withdrawing places the responsibility for the Islamist threat where it lies: on Muslims in the Middle East. Only they can solve their own pathologies. We have lost a chance to guide this process; so we may as well let it play out on its own. If it means $100 a barrel of oil, great.
The Dish 