U.s. Policy Toward Iraq Within the Context of Complexity Theories: Looking Back in Order to Move Forward

"I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent." The Mahatma Gandhi Life is shaped by a cycle of coming and going and growth and decay. Everything that begins in a process becomes something else. Living systems, including political and administrative systems in the United States, are not static but dynamic, moving from equilibrium to oscillation to chaos and once again to equilibrium. This transformation takes place within an interconnected world of uncertainty, resulting in continuous changes within an irreversible world. The U. S. policy toward Iraq is an illustrative example of such dynamics. In understanding this, we can create a new way of thinking about dealing with change. Rather than attempting to deal with the discrete events that contribute to the limited manifestation of understanding and knowledge, we can attempt to deal with life itself as a whole and as a collective of non-discrete events in order to understand the epistemology of our experiences.