America’s Pro-War Elites Must Be Held Accountable
The United States is still good at many things, but holding elites to account is not one of them. President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush pardoned the officials responsible for the Iran-Contra scandal, and Barack Obama declined to prosecute the men and women who had authorized the illegal use of torture. The architects of the disastrous wars in Vietnam and Iraq remained respected members of the establishment for the rest of their lives, in some cases occupying leadership posts or comfortable sinecures at prominent institutions and continuing to opine on foreign-policy matters whenever they wished. Nor were the fraudsters who brought us the 2008 financial crisis ever held to account—we just turned the page and moved on. Given that record, it isn’t so surprising that the United States tends to repeat past errors.
The war with Iran is a case in point. It remains to be seen whether the cease-fire announced on Tuesday will hold, but it is already clear that going to war again was a terrible blunder. Two months ago, the Strait of Hormuz was open, Iran was contained and its leaders were unpopular, oil and gas prices were lower, and its U.S. weapons stocks were fuller. Today, oil and gas prices have soared; inflation is rising; Iran controls the strait and is earning money from tolls; and its government is younger, more hard-line, and enjoying greater public support. U.S. missile stocks are depleted, and some key facilities in the region have been severely damaged. And the entire world has been shown that the United States is led by an impulsive old man who has no idea what he is doing. At this point, there’s no reason to delay imposing accountability on those responsible for what has been an unnecessary strategic disaster.
I’ve already offered some preliminary views on who is to blame for the boneheaded decision to go to war, along with some thoughts on who should not be blamed. Primary responsibility rests with U.S. President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the aides who enabled them, of course. But such decisions do not arise out of thin air. In democracies, the road to foolish wars of choice is paved by pundits, lobbyists, advisors, and other alleged experts who sometimes spend years working to convince policymakers that unleashing the dogs of war will make a vexing foreign-policy problem disappear. Their efforts gradually normalize the idea of using military force, making a momentous and fateful decision on which thousands of lives depend seem like just one option among many.
The formula for war is almost always the same: After portraying the chosen enemy as the epitome of evil and incapable of reform, the war party assures us that the campaign will be quick, easy, cheap, and bring far-reaching and long-lasting benefits. They repeatedly warn that time is running out and failure to act now will have dire consequences. They tend to be studiously silent about the innocent civilians who will be killed and the hardships survivors will face after we’ve blown a lot of stuff up, and they confidently predict that the populations we are attacking will welcome our actions. This familiar recipe is then endlessly repeated until the stars line up and some foolish leader decides the warmongers are right.
