My next reading assignment is Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, an outstanding history book that won a record number of prizes. I haven’t even started it yet, because I am still in the middle of reading about the Sandinista Revolution, but I picked it up this morning just out of curiosity. It occurred to me that America was good at making wars (destruction) but not at repairing the damages of war (reconstruction).
We like to congratulate ourselves on the reconstruction of Germany and Japan after The Second World War, and we should feel proud of that, the biggest reconstruction effort in human history. But I think we give ourselves too much credit. We helped, that is true, but the real credit goes to the Germans and the Japanese who where able to rebuild their countries from the ground up (literally). They already knew how to construct an modern industrial society, and they set to work doing it all over again. But their basic social structures remained the same. In Germany, for example, many of the Nazis functionaries were still in place 20 years later. And in Japan the same business conglomerates reorganized Japanese industry, even the Emperor was untouched. We even helped Japan destroy the strong postwar Japanese labor movement (even though it was completely democratic). In general, we helped restore the status quo. The industrial infrastructure was not as well developed in Italy, and the reconstruction there was not nearly as impressive.
The restoration of the existing power structures was a conscious, automatic decision on the part of the American leadership, but it was never made clear to the American public, who thought the world was just following their illustrious example. If we only look back a little further in American history, we can see a how badly America failed its most important reconstruction: the one on our own soil, in the American South, the most disgraceful episode in American history.
There is another disgraceful reconstruction going on right now: in Afghanistan and Iraq. Afghanistan seems to have dropped of the radar screen of the American media, but that unfortunate country, caught in the middle between Russia and the US, is in its own Dark Ages, Islamic style. I can remember when I was a traveler in the area, back in the early 70s, how Afghanistan was on of the nicest countries to travel in, it was backward, but the people were wonderful. Even Iran (during the Shah) was a favorite travel destination.
I can also remember how the CNN crew in Baghdad during the Gulf War were grateful for the kindness of the ordinary Iraqi people. Needless to say, the situation there has deteriorated; the American occupation has not made the Iraqis more hospitable. 75% of the people were employed (mostly in State industries), but 80% are now unemployed; much of the country is still without electricity. Our modern carpetbaggers are trying to enrich themselves at other people’s expense. This only proves, once again, that the US is not good at reconstruction. We should not kid ourselves about that, and there are plenty of other examples, such as our record in the Philippines.
We should keep this in mind the next time we are tempted to start a war. Construction (especially reconstruction) is much more difficult than destruction.
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