Bury my heart at Haditha
By Capt. Fogg
The notion that the Mainstream Media only reports bad news and does so only to make the administration look bad, may be more muted than it was several years ago, but it is still operative amongst the people who identify themselves as “conservative.”
Setting aside the notion that the press ought to stress the scanty examples of improvements in Iraqi life attributable to the American presence rather than the random acts of horrifying brutality because we need to maintain morale, we should ask ourselves what we would be most affected by were we in the shoes of the Iraqis. How would I weigh the news that my son’s school had reopened although it might be too dangerous for him to attend against the news that the Americans had raped my daughter, destroyed my brother’s car, killed my sister’s husband and ruined my livelihood?
I am not arguing that our troops are barbarians, but I cannot argue that some of them are not. Regardless of whether it is one percent or half of one percent that are committing humiliating acts, brutal acts and even murderous acts and regardless of whether we think we should take notice or ignore it, the Iraqis; the people we tell ourselves we conquered for their own good are going to remember each and every detail. They have little else to do sitting in the dark trying to cook something over a fire over scrap wood someone risked their life to obtain while bullets ricochet in the street.
How is it that our leadership was stupid enough to think we could demolish the infrastructure and institutions and resources of Iraq without plunging it into chaos and how is it that these idiots could believe we could do it without turning them against us? How is it that Americans who might otherwise seem sane can insist we need to ignore all this for the good of the troops and can still talk about “winning” when what we hoped to win has long since been destroyed?
(Cross-posted at Human Voices.)
“After the taxi passengers were shot, the report found, the Marines raided nearby houses, firing indiscriminately, using both grenades and guns, in a bloody, door-to-door sweep, killing 14 unarmed inhabitants, in just 10 minutes.”
The notion that the Mainstream Media only reports bad news and does so only to make the administration look bad, may be more muted than it was several years ago, but it is still operative amongst the people who identify themselves as “conservative.”
“One 13-year-old girl was the lone survivor in the second house, losing five family members, including her mother and 3-year-old sister and 5-year-old brother. ‘He fired and killed everybody. The American fired and killed everybody,’ Safah Yunis Salem told investigators.”
Setting aside the notion that the press ought to stress the scanty examples of improvements in Iraqi life attributable to the American presence rather than the random acts of horrifying brutality because we need to maintain morale, we should ask ourselves what we would be most affected by were we in the shoes of the Iraqis. How would I weigh the news that my son’s school had reopened although it might be too dangerous for him to attend against the news that the Americans had raped my daughter, destroyed my brother’s car, killed my sister’s husband and ruined my livelihood?
I am not arguing that our troops are barbarians, but I cannot argue that some of them are not. Regardless of whether it is one percent or half of one percent that are committing humiliating acts, brutal acts and even murderous acts and regardless of whether we think we should take notice or ignore it, the Iraqis; the people we tell ourselves we conquered for their own good are going to remember each and every detail. They have little else to do sitting in the dark trying to cook something over a fire over scrap wood someone risked their life to obtain while bullets ricochet in the street.
How is it that our leadership was stupid enough to think we could demolish the infrastructure and institutions and resources of Iraq without plunging it into chaos and how is it that these idiots could believe we could do it without turning them against us? How is it that Americans who might otherwise seem sane can insist we need to ignore all this for the good of the troops and can still talk about “winning” when what we hoped to win has long since been destroyed?
(Cross-posted at Human Voices.)
posted by Capt. Fogg at
10:18 AM
5 Comments:
Probably because the Marines, at least, are on trial and facing some serious charges.
But who is going to charge the Sunni Ba'athist for kidnapping someone's uncle or brothre, and killing them if they don't get paid?
Who is going to put on trial the Shiites who drill holes in the skulls of Sunni?
Who is going to put on trial the murderers and thugs who killed the wife and daughter of one of the Iraqi Army officers?
Every day...Every Day, atrocities happen in Iraq. And they are committed by Iraqis, on other Iraqis.
The so called 'honorable resistance' is a murderous group of thugs who do far worse than Haditha. Daily. Weekly. Monthly.
And believe it or not, the US presence is actually limiting it, to a certain extent.
Both groups are only doing 'soft' ethnic cleansing, where they give families of other sects a few hours to leave before they take over their homes. Its not at the level where they're out right killing entire neighborhoods, not at the level of genocide in Rwanda.
And hopefully, if we get our own heads out of our a$$es, it won't ever reach that point.
But it most certainly will if we believe that we can't do anything to stop it, and that we might as well get Americans out of the way.
By
Anonymous, at 11:38 AM
I disagree with your reasoning. Had we been able to maintain order, had we not attempted to erase the past and build from scratch and gone about it with faith based blindness, I believe we might have had a chance to build a government that could control and maintain a democratic republic, but we certainly were not able to, and we certainly were wrong that a just government would spring up spontaneously. It is less likely to happen at all. The sectarian violence is, in my opinion, results in large part from our actions.
Do not forget our long history of aiding and instigating violence in the area with our support of Saddam's bloody war against Iran. No one looks on us as a peace maker.
To be the instigator of violence and to insist that we must remain because without us there would be more violence is as circular in argument as it is in practice.
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Capt. Fogg, at 1:28 PM
If we hadn't made some exceedingly stupid mistakes in the first three years, Iraq would be in a completely different situation right now.
I'm not really saying that we have to stay because there would be more violence if we left, but rather that if we actually have a plan that will lead to success that its worth trying...given the consequences if we withdraw precipitiously.
Now, a lot of people already believe that the battle is lost and its time to withdraw. Or they think that we can't do anything to improve the situation.
I happen to disagree. Some of it is because of the various articles I see regarding how the military is changing its tactics. The training they are giving the soldiers who will develop the Iraqi Army is a huuuge step, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they do. (Used to be they pulled people from other units, and most units will give up those who they least feel are mission critical. In other words, the ones who weren't very good.)
The stuff going on in Anbar province is very interesting, too. The Sunni tribes are working with Coalition Forces and rooting out al Qaeda.
I don't know how serious PM Maliki is with his recent announcement about Baghdad security, but that would also be a huge step in stabilizing Iraq.
Furthermore, I'm seeing a lot of Iraqi announcements and mosque sermons that talk about how "Iraq is for all Iraqis". Your average Iraqi wants peace and stability, didn't really like Saddam (though they'll look on his stability with longing given the current chaos) and got along with the other sects.
But they are too cowed and intimidated by the people fighting...who most definitely are NOT fighting with the full and freely given support of the citizens. Except some of the Sunni tribes, given how much they lost in the invasion. And some of those are so out of touch with reality that I don't know if anything will make them realize that they will never regain what they lost.
The biggest problem, really, is that the Iraqis have no idea how a rule of law operates. The people who join the government forces just as often sell their weapons on the black market for money, or are working for the insurgents. And everything we pour into building up the Iraqi forces often goes straight to the enemy and strengthens them, instead.
But there are signs that this is also changing. Some of the shake up within Maliki's government was to put less corrupt people in charge. There was that case in which they disbanded a corrupt unit - which mean that there was government support for such a move, and that they were no longer accept it as 'how things are done'.
A lot is changing. In some very good ways. But it will take a while before the seeds bear fruit.
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Anonymous, at 1:49 PM
You make valid points, even though I do not share your optimism but really, my post was about how no matter what we do, the atrocities we commit, the humiliations we inflict the mess we make will be what defines us to a great many and probably the overwhelming majority of Iraqis. I tend to believe the numbers that show about three quarters of them want us to leave.
Rational or not - and people aren't rational - life before the invasion seems like the good old days for an awful lot of people and they will remember that Americans did this or that with more anger than they will remember what other entities have done.
I don't see that changing without a restoration of normal life and I don't see a restoration of normal life anywhere down the track we are on. I can't help thinking about how we hung on in Viet Nam with much the same rationale and how that country is for perhaps the first time in centuries is moving toward peace and prosperity. Are we making the same mistake in assuming that the only road into the future is the one we choose for Iraq?
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Capt. Fogg, at 4:39 PM
I think its sort of like how after every South Korean protest against the Americans, there is often a much larger and less publicized demonstration in support of the US.
We know they don't want us to stay, but many of them acknowledge that right now things would get worse if we left. Saying that they don't want us to stay is more like saying "so don't get any ideas of making this a permanent thing" then an immediate call for withdrawal. Even Iran, despite its public face, privately admits things would be bad if we left hastily. Well, some Iranians feel that way.
The Sunni, in particular, are sort of realizing that we're the ones keeping the Shiites from getting too hasty. Some of them think we should work together to drive out the "Persians" - since they lump the Arabic Shiites with the Iranians.
People aren't rational, you're right. And the ones who are thinking emotionally will always be there. But if we establish security in a neutral manner, without punishing one group excessively, a lot of Iraqis will see it as a good sign.
We'll see what happens in the next few months.
By
Anonymous, at 1:23 AM
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