Thursday, April 08, 2004
(9:20 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
Greater Love Hath No Man Than This
Jacques Lacan informs us that "love is to give what one does not have...."
One thing that America does not have is effective sovereignty over Iraq. Sovereignty is the monopoly on legitimate use of coersive force, and as Thomas Jefferson notes, such things depend on the consent of the governed. Even calling the Iraqis "the governed" at this point is a stretch. There is no Iraqi state in any meaningful sense of the word. We destroyed the Iraqi state, and now we are in the process of trying to obtain effective sovereignty and thus reestablish the state. We're not there yet -- and may never be.
Thus, I was at first confused about any talk of "handing over sovereignty" to the Iraqis. It sounded like if I were to say that I was going to "hand over a million dollars" to some charity -- it's impossible. I don't have a million dollars to give, and I have no way to get it, especially not by June 30. But that's when I realized what was really going on here. That's when I realized why Bush & Co. were in such a rush to invade Iraq -- they did it out of love. And since Bush is a Wesleyan, we may be able to take it a step further: he did it out of perfect love.
Such miracles do not come except by prayer and fasting.
