In his book Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power, historian Victor Davis Hanson expresses his theory of warfare popularized as the “Western way of war.” In it he tries to explain why western armies often triumph over non-western ones.

In the case of Iraq, I think I know why. It’s summed up in the simple phrase ins’Allah. This is Arabic for “if God wills it.” This is a popular Arab saying, and in my experience has been a window into the Iraqi culture and psyche. I grew up with a different saying: “The Lord helps those who help themselves.” It means that you succeed through hard work and effort. My impression is that the Iraqis don’t see success this way. To them it is up to the will of God if they succeed or fail, live or die, cross the street and survive when the light is red or not. Literally.

Thus it is the will of God when young men and women strap on suicide vests and go into crowded markets, and not the responsibility of the parents and the mullahs who tell them it is an acceptable form of protest. If the Iraqis are put in a position that they can profit by selling the police uniforms that were issued to them then it is the will of God if they sell those uniforms to the terrorists.

It seems as if there is no concept of individual responsibility in this culture. In the words of one of my colleagues, “These people are a bunch of no-load motherfuckers who deserved Saddam.” Whether it's the Iraqi Army not engaging terrorists or showing up on payday and then quitting, Iraqi policemen sacrificing the safety of their jurisdictions to factional death squads, or even the Iraqi parliament taking off on a summer vacation while their citizens swelter amid unabated violence, it's hard not to see it the way he does. It could be that Saddam killed all the leaders or people with any initiative. It could also be that Saddam was a product of his society and not merely something inflicted upon it.