In Iraq, Americans Must Confront Complexities, not Cliches

In Iraq, Americans Must Confront Complexities, not Cliches

Editor’s note: This is Heather Hurlburt’s final “Full-Spectrum Diplomacy” column at World Politics Review. We’d like to thank her for filling in for Richard Gowan, who will be returning next week, and look forward to featuring her work in WPR in the future.

This is going to be a rough week for Americans, who like their politics simple and their geopolitics even simpler. Give us plucky honest underdogs for good guys, nasty corrupt villains for bad guys, open-field battles where everyone shoots straight, and we are the most generous people on Earth.

Really. Though the U.S. ranked 19th in government aid last year, private citizens in America give between three and seven times as much to charity as their European counterparts. If you add the two up, the U.S. comes out No. 1.

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