Statecraft Informer

I’ve done a lot of landscaping in my life, both professionally and because I enjoy helping things grow.

Often while preparing the ground for a tree or shrub, shovel in hand, pile of dirt rising, a passerby will stop and ask, “Digging a hole?”

Of course, wise guy that I am, I invariably reply, “Nope. Can’t dig a hole.”

Waiting the appropriate three beats, I say, “I’m digging the dirt. Leaving the hole.”

Okay, so it’s pretty dumb. I only claim to be a genius. :-p

As such, it occurred to me how much like planting a shrub – or say, a bush – is our invasion and occupation of Iraq.

The goal (after the previous four or five goals didn’t pan out), was planting the bush, or tree, of democracy in that country.

Experience has taught me a couple of things about successful landscaping. If a particular shrub has been called for (assuming there is a landscape designer’s plan from which to work), you must insure the location is suitable for that plant stock. Often, the soil must be carefully prepared and amended prior to planting.

One of the old adages of landscape gardening is, “Don’t put a $100 plant in a ten cent hole.”

And so the ground for democracy must be ever so much more carefully prepared.

It would appear what’s currently planted in Iraq is not so much a tree of democracy as it is an invasive bush of thorns.

Although the ground has already been dug, and the shrubbery planted, we continue to dig and dig and dig.

In the meantime, the thorny bush spreads, winding its way across the land, drawing blood as it grows, cutting through the thickest gloves, impervious to the strongest herbicides. Making matters worse, competing landscape firms, promising new fruit in abundance, have encouraged the thorny bush’s growth, planting the seeds of even more poisonous plant material.

This week, a landscape review of the Iraq cultivation has revealed a number of mistakes the early gardeners made, and offered a 79 step program for amending the soil, pruning back the thorns and grafting new branches of uninfected stock onto the struggling democratic sapling’s narrow trunk.

Upon initial review, the head landscaper thanked the team of agricultural inspectors for their advice, and reiterated his desire to help democracy come to flower in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. He insisted that, for now, the best course of action is to keep on digging.

Which brings us back to holes.

Landscaping notwithstanding, what’s the first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole?

That’s right. Stop digging.

Either way, the thorny bush we planted is alive, and for the immediate future, at least, will continue spreading throughout the region.

We may yet be able to salvage and ultimately nurture a tree of democracy in Iraq. Unfortunately, some plants that thrive in one area often wither in others. So, perhaps a hybrid variety, more suited to the ground there, will be what effectively takes root.

A good gardener, although patient, will not continue a course of action which perpetuates poor, or dangerous, growth.

However, a good gardener will not give up on a quality specimen without considering, and employing whatever methods might lead to the successful, independent establishment of plant material.

In this case, the plant is priceless and comes from good stock, and although it sits atop a wealth of fossil fuel, the hole it’s in is more valuable still.

We have dug down deep into the Iraqi soil, at a tremendous cost in lost unity, gold and blood.

If we don’t stop digging now, we may find ourselves in a hole whose price is also beyond measure, and from which we cannot climb out for a long, long time.