At the Mises Institute event in New York I had the privilege of having a brief conversation with Ron Paul. The main topic of discussion was Iraq.
Like i've discussed on this forum, i suggested to Dr. Paul that the solution to Iraq is privatization. I said advocating leaving right away comes short of dealing with some more optimal strategies given the current circumstances.
In effect, he responded that any attempts to privatize should come from within Iraq, from the Iraqi people, and not by measures led by the USA. He alluded that this would result in further blow back and perceptions of US interventionism in their sovereign affairs. Reaffirming his initial position, he stated lastly that leaving Iraq is the best solution for the interest of America given current circumstances.
I think his position is fair and expressed agreement that America doesn't want to feed any more negative ideas of US imposition. In trying to make myself clear, i said that America should not privatize in any managerial sense because that would directly reflect Dr. Paul's concerns. My solution would be return the Iraqi assets to the Iraqi people and away from the Iraqi central government, a US concoction, which appears to be the core civil problem in Iraq today.
Unfortunately, I never got a chance to elaborate on this point or for Dr. Paul to duly respond, but was very grateful for the time we got to chat regardless.
In the elaboration, i would've wanted to say that leaving the current government in power and for us to treat them as the sovereign owners of the nation would be to leave a lasting negative sentiment in the region as well. This may have potential blow back too. USA shows up, sets up a government that earns the control of one of the many ethnic groups, this perpetuates a civil war, and then America just steps out the way with no reconciliation or reimbursement for the damage done.
IMO, Dr. Paul's position stands as a superior strategy compared to US troops staying to help support the Iraqi government - this i have little doubt over. I think the best case scenario under that circumstance would be the destabilization of the Iraqi government when America leaves.
However, given the current stand, i think America's optimal strategy is still to undo the damage they created and solve the dictatorial problems by returning the Iraq assets to the Iraqi people in the form of proportional equity shares.
