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05/02/2004 Entry: "This is brutal."
The world knows we have lost in Iraq. The only ones who don't know are your average Americans, it seems.
A year after President George Bush famously declared "major combat" in Iraq over, how is it that so many Iraqis now have such a visceral hatred of Americans? One reason is that the photographs of brutality and humiliation of Iraqi detainees by British and American troops, which have so shocked the rest of the world and angered Arab countries, have come as little surprise to Iraqis. For months it has been clear to them that the occupation is very brutal; for weeks they have been watching pictures of the dead and injured in Fallujah on al-Jazeera satellite television which CNN did not broadcast.Iraqis, who are cynical about their rulers, may also suspect that real as well as simulated torture is going on in Abu Ghraib prison, where US intelligence calls the shots. They may suspect that, as under Saddam Hussein, the humiliation and ill-treatment were quite deliberately inflicted to soften up prisoners before they were interrogated. More graphic pictures of real torture are said to have been taken as well those shown on US television last week.
Saddam should not have been a hard act to follow. Iraqis knew that he had ruined their lives through his disastrous wars against Iran and Kuwait, and were glad to be rid of him. Even the supposed beneficiaries of his rule, the Sunni Arabs of cities such as Tikrit and Fallujah, could not see why they were so much poorer than the people of other oil states such as Kuwait and Abu Dhabi.
Watching the dancing, jeering crowd in Waziriya was Nada Abdullah Aboud, a middle-aged woman, dressed in black. She had a reason for hating Americans, though she claimed she did not do so. "I do feel sorry for the young soldiers, though they killed my son," she said quietly. "They came such a long distance to die here." It turned out that her son, Saad Mohammed, had been the translator for a senior Italian diplomat working for the ruling Coalition Provisional Authority. She said: "My son was driving with the Italian ambassador last September near Tikrit when an American soldier fired at the car and shot him through the heart."
[...]
The extraordinary political weakness of the US in Iraq became evident as never before last week. Despite having an overwhelming military force available to take Fallujah and Najaf, the US did not dare do so. It had become evident even in Washington that to crush the resistance in either city - not a difficult task against a few thousand lightly armed gunmen - would spread rather than end the rebellion.
Even so, it was extraordinary to see Jassim Mohammed Saleh, a general in Saddam's Republican Guard - disbanded like so much else in Iraq last May - being driven into Fallujah on Friday in full uniform past cheering crowds. The old Iraqi flag, now dropped by the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, was being waved from his car window.
It is a measure of how far the Governing Council is out of touch with ordinary Iraqi opinion that they should have voted to change the flag in the first place. Mohammed, an engineer trying to patch up a broken sewage pipe in Baghdad, still had time to express his fury at the change. "Of course the occupation is a disaster," he said. "We understand the Governing Council are American agents. But a man has to be the worst of collaborators to change his country's flag."
On 30 June the US will be handing over very little to Iraqis. Security remains firmly in US hands; so does control of money. One of the biggest US mistakes was not to hold elections earlier, something British and US officials admit in private could have been done. This would have produced a legitimate Iraqi authority to which Iraqi security forces could have given real loyalty. Dr Mahmoud Othman, a member of the Governing Council, says: "Iraqis are never going to fight other Iraqis under the orders of an American." This was amply borne out when half of the US-trained security forces deserted or mutinied in early April.
The tide is going out for the US in Iraq. They were not able to use their military strength against Fallujah and Najaf. They have very little political support outside Kurdistan. They can no longer win. It may be one of the most extraordinary defeats in history.
Replies: 7 people speak up
Even somethingawful.com, ostensibly a comedy website, has something to say about the situation over there:
"Seriously, this is one of those 'What the Sweet Merciful Fuck' situations that no one quite knows how to handle. It's like we all took it so for granted that we'd never have to deal with this sort of thing that now we can only sit with our thumbs up our asses and try to make lame excuses while the rest of the world gets ready to hand us the bitchslapping of a lifetime. If terrorists were pissed at us before, now they must be formulating ways to somehow kill each and every one of us individually. I mean, sure, we marched into their countries, overthrew their governments, parked tanks in front of their mosques, and told them their ways of life were savage and wrong, but they had to cut us some slack, because at least we never put hoods on people and then pissed on them. That was our last leg with the terrorist community at large. Now we just look like assholes. But hey, at least we're assholes with empty bladders.
"We here at Something Awful have put our support behind the troops over in Iraq since day one. No matter what we had to say about the war itself, we've always been behind our troops. That's never been a question. They're still over there risking their lives in a country that none of us would even think about setting foot in until they start serving Big Macs at the local falafel stands (it's not that we're scared, it's just that none of us can survive ten minutes without a Big Mac). But how are we - and I'm not talking just us at SA now, I mean all Americans - supposed to feel now? Our troops tortured Iraqi prisoners, including possibly killing one of them. That just doesn't fly. That's not what America does. At least, that's what we've all been brought up to believe. America doesn't do that sort of thing. That's what the bad guys do. But now we've been caught with our collective fly down, and unfortunately we were pissing on hooded Iraqis at the time. Whoopsie.
"Just so we're clear, this isn't an 'aww shucks' fuck-up we're talking about, here. This is a genuine, bonafide 'holy shit' fuck-up. Nobody likes to hear that their prisoners are being stripped naked or urinated on, but it's the sort of thing that the Middle East tends to get particularly uppity about. I don't know what it is about thousands of years of trying to eke out a civilized existence among all those sand dunes and oil fires, but the Arabs as a people seem to consider sexual abuse one of their hot buttons."
Posted by Raijin>> @ 05/02/2004 05:10 AM NY
I think the main thing that needs to be injected into this commentary is that it isn't a US failure. No, this is solely and squarely a Bushco Failure and their poodle Blair's failure.
A name needs to be firmly implanted and associated with this failure because as we have seen Bush was more than willing to declare and claim personal success when he strutted across the deck in his flight suit costume a year ago. He was more than willing to declare it Bush's War when it looked like "victory" was indeed at hand. Now lets be sure to pin this failure on him.
Bush's Failed Iraq War.
Say it loud and say it often.
Posted by emal @ 05/02/2004 09:08 AM NY
I can't believe the way Thomas Friedman trashed the French for wanting early elections. Who's sorry now, Tom?
Posted by wpm @ 05/02/2004 09:10 AM NY
Something to think about... how many Americans knew someone who was either killed in 9/11, or escaped being killed in 9/11 because they didn’t work that day or whatever, or knows someone who did know someone? Just about everyone I would imagine. I know someone who didn’t go to work that day, my second cousin's husband, and im from Ohio, so I can only imagine that most people have a similar experience. Now, mind you, this is in a country with what? 280 million citizens? My point is that in Iraq, a country of something like 25 million (?), over 10,000 civilians have been killed. I can’t imagine that there is a single person in Iraq who doesn’t at least know someone who has a friend or family member who has died in this war (and that’s not even counting the Iraqi army, which was all basically forced civilian labor). Now, think about the rage and fury that occurred when we were attacked, and lost close to 3 thousand people, and then imagine that multiplied by 3, and then increased by the fact that they have around 1/6 of our population. Already it is easy to understand why we will never win the "hearts and minds of the Iraqi people". Furthermore, imagine if a year after 9/11, Al Qaeda had captured a bunch of Americans, pissed on them, tortured them, and sexually assaulted them, and then took pictures. We would have nuked SOMEONE (possibly just some Arab country at random). This war was lost before it started, but at this point we will be lucky if any Muslim country is not at war with us in the near future (its time to buy an electric car, I wouldn’t sell oil to rapists if I were them)
Posted by justin @ 05/02/2004 11:00 AM NY
Well you can't say we lost the war to Iraq. We aren't at war with Iraq. We "supposedly" went in to get rid of Saddam. Well he's removed. Now we are simply helping keep the country stable until they have the infrastructure up and running, and have elected new leaders to replace to old.
While I agree we are doing miserably over there. I felt I must point out that we are not at war.
The reason they are calling us occupiers instead of liberators is because we are still there. Occupying. Can't occupy a country you've lost to.
As to these idiots methods of torturing prisoners. How dumb do you have to be to tape it? Take lessons from the Mexican Federalis. A cold soda shaken up and placed directly below the nostrils causes severe discomfort while leaving no marks or harm of any kind. A few hours of that and drug dealers sell out their brothers.
Posted by IXLNXS @ 05/02/2004 11:01 AM NY
The Bush boys be eating their words now. But the problem is much larger than when they started. And the soldiers lives (as well as the innocent citizens of Iraq, that are being killed by "terrorism", no matter what anyone tries to call it) are being played on the political stage.
I rise to a point of order and request that those of us who have the belief and have the guts need to blitzkreig the media with a message that makes it clear that we reject whole heartedly the policy of the American War Lords, and the situation it has created.
Write your blogs. Post on the message boards. Call Rash Lintbag. Call Sean Jivedaddy. Mike Raygun. Clear Fucking Channel. Let us crank up the volume on our message. True Americans, not the sons and daughters of those who stole this land from the Natives, not the ones who condoned slavery, but true Americans...those who have and continue to stand by (and die for if need be)"truth, liberty, and justice FOR ALL." Fighting for peace is like screwing for chastity. We have become the merchants of terror in a land that desperatley needs peace. Even at a time when most all of the politcal and religious leaders stand frozen...let us recall the words of an Obviously Enlightened Man who said "can't we just all get along?" Was that the President...the Pope...the Head of the AMA...the head of the teachers association...the Secretary of State, Billy F. Grahm.....no it was a brother from the ghetto who inspite of his own desperation, gave the voice of reason a platform.
Where is our voice? When we find it CRANK IT UP! Not in arguement but in decisive statement. CRANK IT UP!
Posted by Aristophanes @ 05/02/2004 11:47 AM NY
We're not losing in Iraq! We are winning! WINNING I TELL YOU!
But in case we do lose (AND WE'RE NOT!!!), it is clearly the fault of libruhls and the hate-America crowd for not supporting the troops enough by shutting the fuck up with all their fancy-pants elitist talk of facts and torture and "occupation" and insurgents.
It's the Clenis' fault too. It just is, don't ask me how. Fox News told me, I believe it, and that settles it.
If you goddamned libruhls would just STFU and stick your head in the sand (or some other very dark place), we wouldn't be in this Mess O' Potamia.
Only it's not a mess. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Victory is within sight. We are at war with Eastasia. We have always been at war with Eastasia.
Posted by renato @ 05/02/2004 04:52 PM NY
