the bracing effects of civil war

If you thought my Iraq civil war post of the other day was a little on the extreme side, here's some evidence that the idea of a managed civil war is beginning to gain acceptance in more respectable circles:

Pessimists increasingly argue that Iraq may be going the way of Lebanon in the 1970s. I hope that isn't so, and that Iraq avoids civil war. But people should realize that even Lebanonization wouldn't be the end of the story. The Lebanese turned to sectarian militias when their army and police couldn't provide security. But through more than 15 years of civil war, Lebanon continued to have a president, a prime minister, a parliament and an army. The country was on ice, in effect, while the sectarian battles raged. The national identity survived, and it came roaring back this spring in the Cedar Revolution that drove out Syrian troops.

And everyone lived happily ever after.

Comments

[Jezza]

Your calling the warmonger Ignatius respectable?

[jamie]

Well, the Washington Post's certainly respectable, at least amongst the professionally respectable.