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09/02/2003 Archived Entry: "Carroll: 'Facing the truth about Iraq'"
Carroll: 'Facing the truth about Iraq'
Despite the rosy scenarios from Rummy and Scott McClellan and the rest of them, this article by James Carroll gets a little - well, a lot - closer to the truth.
The war is lost. By most measures of what the Bush administration forecast for its adventure in Iraq, it is already a failure. The war was going to make the Middle East a more peaceful place. It was going to undercut terrorism. It was going to show the evil dictators of the world that American power is not to be resisted. It was going to improve the lives of ordinary Iraqis. It was going to stabilize oil markets. The American army was going to be greeted with flowers. None of that happened. The most radical elements of various fascist movements in the Arab world have been energized by the invasion of Iraq. The American occupation is a rallying point for terrorists. Instead of undermining extremism, Washington has sponsored its next phase, and now moderates in every Arab society are more on the defensive than ever.Before the war, the threat of America's overwhelming military dominance could intimidate, but now such force has been shown to be extremely limited in what it can actually accomplish. For the sake of "regime change," the United States brought a sledge hammer down on Iraq, only to profess surprise that, even as Saddam Hussein remains at large, the structures of the nation's civil society are in ruins. The humanitarian agencies necessary to the rebuilding of those structures are fleeing Iraq.
The question for Americans is, Now what? Democrats and Republicans alike want to send in more US soldiers. Some voices are raised in the hope that the occupation can be more fully "internationalized," which remains unlikely while Washington retains absolute control. But those who would rush belligerent reinforcements to Iraq are making the age-old mistake.
When brutal force generates resistance, the first impulse is to increase force levels. But, as the history of conflicts like this shows, that will result only in increased resistance. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has rejected the option of more troops for now, but, in the name of force-protection, the pressures for escalation will build as US casualties mount. The present heartbreak of one or two GI deaths a day will seem benign when suicide bombers, mortar shells, or even heavier missile fire find their ways into barracks and mess halls.
Replies: somebody speaks up.
we lost this war before we ever fired the first shot. occupation style adventures are always doomed to failure. there are very few examples from history of successfull occupations, and most of them resulted from the assimilation of one culture by the other, such as the english and the normans. the only successfull violent occupation that has ever stood against the tides of time is our massacre and relocation of the native americans. the only reason we pulled that one off is because we killed so many of them that they had to either give up, or have their entire culture, race, and history wiped from the face of the earth. hopefully that is not the type of occupation we have planned in iraq, and we certainly are not going to assimilate them, they dispise every thing about our culture. the only option that leaves us is defeat, and that is the one we chose when we started this war. no one seriousely thought that the north vietnamese could hold up to american might in 1965... this war is also just starting, and it will continue to its conclusion whether we continue to fight it or not. it is really time for people to learn that crushing your enemies only spreads them out, and causes their ideas to flourish. why cant we just apply the common sense we use in every day relationshipd to politics? after all, politicians are actually people (believe it or not) so the principles of dealing with people apply to other nations as well. for instance, if you are nice to people, they will like you, if you are honest with people, they will trust you, and if you fuck them over at every turn, they will do anything they can to get back at you. its that last one that americans really need to learn. if you overthrow someones government several times in one century, starve them, loan shark them, and trick them into wars where you are arming both sides (iraq/iran) they are going to hate you. i always hear news mouthpieces saying "why do they hate us" in a whining childish manner. they hate us because we have dont nothing but betray the entire third world for the past 100 years, and they also hate us because we dont know why they hate us, its fairly obviouse to anyone who is paying attention.
Posted by justin @ 09/03/2003 11:13 AM NY
