Iraq Questions

Professor J,

Hope your Father's Day was a great one.

Thanks for enlightening us on some of the history of the current situation in Iraq.  People in power never seem to look down the road and imagine all the troubles they cause when they set about carving up maps, even if they are doing it with good intentions. And historically, good intentions haven't had too much to do with it.

Oh, those unintended consequences.

Isn't part of our problem that we get leaders who tend to be lawyers or the occasional business person? How might a country with historians in position to make policy, domestic and foreign, look different? 

Of course that would entail imagining a world where education, history, and liberal arts are valued. All of these connections just keep tumbling in upon themselves.

I'll admit to not being up to speed for an in depth discussion of this situation due to a self imposed cut back on my access to news (or the media's access to me). Tough for a former news junkie. When I hear people bringing it up in conversation while out and about however, the overall sentiment is "why can't we stay home and mind our own business?"

And what's our moral obligation there (if any) given that we created a mass of problems (and destruction) and then left. Is the best course of action to let them solve their own problems even though we are largely responsible for many of them?

How does that play to the rest of the world?