Is Iraq more or less bloody than similar U.S. conflicts in history?
Hanson: Far less bloody, if one compares World Wars I and II, Korea or Vietnam, or even insurrections in the Philippines. Our problem is that after Grenada, Panama, Gulf War I, Kosovo, Serbia, and Afghanistan, our military was so lethal that we assumed it would never again accept any losses. It creates an ever escalating sense of expectations that become almost impossible to meet mirroring the nature of American society itself that feels 200 cable channel TV is passé or single-task cell phones are deserving of the junk pile. I’ve heard a number of people complain that our endeavor in Iraq amounts to an exercise in misguided Wilsonian solipsism, a doomed attempt to plant democracy where it cannot grow. Could you comment? Muslims participate in full and quasi- democracies in Turkey, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Almost all democratic efforts Japan, Italy, Germany, South Korea, Panama, Grenada, Serbia, and Afghanistan followed from the use of force or the threat of such. I don’t like th
