The real lesson of Iraq

William Saletan has a very interesting column today about the technological lessons of the Iraq war. The upshot is that humans are still better at planting IEDs than robots are at finding them, so the U.S. military's only option is to make better use of our human IED spotters while developing cyborgs to do the job more effectively.

Saletan may be right about that. As he says, though, the cyborg angle is "a story for another war." As I see it, the most important lesson of this war is not anything about military technology, it's something about politics.

You just can not use military force to create a stable, open, democratic society. It can't be done. It doesn't matter how strong and effective your military is. It's like trying to use a nuclear bomb to make a pumpkin pie.

If we wanted to pacify Iraq, we wouldn't need to send cyborg dogs around sniffing for backpack bombs. First we could shut down the internet that insurgents use to share information - simply destroy every router in the country. Then we could nationalize all industry, and force the Iraqi people to rely on our puppet government for their livelihood. We could seize control of all newspapers and print only our chosen propaganda, and bar all private media from the country. If even that failed to quell the violence, we could shell towns with cheap artillery until the population was forced into refugee camps, then blast farms with napalm until the people depend on us for food. Then institute a policy of "fifty Iraqis die for every American killed." In short, we could copy the Burmese government; they do just fine with no cyborgs at all.

But we won't do that, because A) our morals forbid it (thank God), and B) it would contradict our stated objective of turning Iraq into a free and open society. As Saletan himself mentions, "Morality is expensive. It's easier to destroy things than to preserve or build them."

This is a political lesson that America learned once in Vietnam, forgot, and will have to learn again. Cyborgs or no cyborgs.