All this is possible, but there is a larger challenge still. Unseating an Arab government in Iraq while leaving the Palestinians to face Israeli tanks and helicopter gunships is a virtual guarantee of unending Islamic wrath against the United States. The chief danger in the whole Iraqi gamble lies here
....Properly understood, then, the operation in Iraq entails a commitment, so far unstated, to enforce a peace on the Palestinians and Israelis. Such a peace must, at a minimum, give the Palestinians a viable, contiguous state capable of providing land and employment for three million people. It must include a commitment to rebuild their shattered government infrastructure, possibly through a United Nations transitional administration, with U.N.-mandated peacekeepers to provide security for Israelis and Palestinians. This is an awesomely tall order, but if America cannot find the will to enforce this minimum of justice, neither it nor Israel will have any safety from terror. This remains true even if you accept that there are terrorists in the Arab world who will never be content unless Israel is driven into the sea. A successful American political strategy against terror depends on providing enough peace for both Israelis and Palestinians that extremists on either side begin to lose the support that keeps violence alive.
We are in a very difficult position: damned if we do, damned if we don't, but the dangers of "don't" are greater. We must overthrow Saddam in Iraq, chase the dominoes throughout the corrupt autocratic regimes of the area, AND resolve the Palestinian-Israeli mess in order to both make the world a better place AND increase our own security. This will not be easy, quick, or without great risk, but half measures, in Ignatieff's astute assessment, do not reduce the risk or even the effort. There are times when all or nothing are the only options; "nothing" has has been eliminated for us as an option by 9/11, leaving only "all." All it is.
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