It’s been my intention for a while to present ideas, both my own and from the far more qualified around the Internet about other things we could’ve done if we didn’t invade Iraq. I found a cogent case written by Phil Carter over at Intel Dump for intervention in Sudan by way of War and Piece. As Phil Carter says, “We let states fail, and failed states crumble, at our own peril.” We do and Afghanistan was a case in point where a failed state allowed the Taliban to come to power. Sudan was another base of operation for bin Laden.

It’s also more subtle than our actions in Iraq… to enter a country not to go to war with the government but to help broker an end to fighting. To borrow some rhetoric from Bush, evil thrives where chaos reigns. Authoritarian governments thrive where desperation reigns. Failed states such as Sudan are nothing but homes for chaos and desperate people.

Another thing to keep any eye on in the coming years is in what state we leave Afghanistan and Iraq. If those states aren’t strong enough to remain stable on their own we simply guarantee that we’ll either have to return there or face another band of terrorists who sought to disappear, train, and strengthen in the chaos and misery that would appear.