As GI boots sink deeper into the Iraqi quagmire, the echoes of Vietnam can be heard
“A phenomenon noticeable throughout history regardless of place or period is the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests. Mankind, it seems, makes a poorer performance of government than of any other human activity. In this sphere, wisdom, which may be defined as the exercise of judgment acting on experience, common sense and available information, is less operative and more frustrated than it should be. Why do holders of high office so often act contrary to the way reason points and enlightened self-interest suggests?” Barbara Tuchman in her book, “The March of Folly – from Troy to Vietnam.” Had she been alive today, she would probably have replaced Vietnam with Iraq in the title.
The latest is the Iraq theatre where one folly follows another, one insensitivity follows another. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and Baghram symbolise this. The Islamic world is in the throes of protest because of the reports of desecration of the Holy Book. Continued occupation of Iraq and the daily dose of humiliation of the people during midnight raids, searches and detentions at unknown places is par for the course. All the unthinking brutality that signifies a desperate and exasperated occupying force is presumably designed to instill fear but is ending up arousing hatred and anger. A young blogger described Baghdad as a giant graveyard.
Following a brutal fortnight which saw nearly 500 deaths in Iraq, in revenge attacks and sectarian violence, Condoleezza Rice arrived in Baghdad to pronounce: “We are grateful that there are Americans willing to sacrifice so the Middle East will be whole and free and democratic and at peace”, she said. Ordinary Iraqis don’t think so and now refer to the state of affairs as “bloodocracy.” If genuine democracy were to indeed blossom in Iraq the following could happen. The Iraqis would oppose privatisation of their economy which gave the outsiders (read Americans, Halliburton, Bechtel) control, they would not want the Americans to stay on nor pay for the military bases, and finally or perhaps foremost, they would want control of oil themselves. In which case would democracy in Iraq be a primary US objective?
More and more Americans (58 %) are wary about wanting to make sacrifices. Bob Herbert writing in the New York Times earlier this month described what one of the army reserves who opted out from Iraq had to say. Soldiers heading off to Iraq were briefed how they would kill a few “ragheads” and burn their turbans. Young American soldiers driving around in their Humvees would routinely shatter empty Coke bottles on the heads of Iraqi civilians passing by. Or kick young six-year olds in the chest, or tie school children with the Humvees’ steel antennae. And Iraqis are also referred to as “Hajis” just as the Vietnamese were called “gooks” or “Charlies”.
According to a survey by the International Republican Institute, Iraqis have to endure about 12,000 patrols every week, omni-present and omni-powerful check points, where at those manned by the Americans, 90 civilians have been killed in the two years up to April 2005 because soldiers manning these positions were poorly trained and equipped. There have been about 8000 raids since May 2003 and more than 80,000 Iraqis have been rounded up since April 2003. Iraqis can now establish their identities only through papers issued by what is increasingly seen as an invading force. They have lost the right to show their own papers and thus lost their identities and their self-respect.
A UN survey called “Iraq Living Conditions Survey 2004” found that following the US-led invasion conditions in Iraq had deteriorated at alarming rate. Vast numbers of people lack access to basic services like clean water, food, health care, electricity, jobs and sanitation. Child malnutrition has increased, infant mortality is up and there are no funds for hospitals. The situation is much worse when compared to 1980. The great promise of economic emancipation under a free democracy has not even begun to take any shape. Sure there are bulldozers and cranes in Baghdad only for constructing new and bigger military bases and not for any infrastructure development. The IMF and World Bank are as usual being unhelpful and unimaginative.
Rice’s visit was followed by the visit of Iranian Foreign Minister, Kamal Kharrazi to Iraq. The contrast was an eloquent testimony. Rice, the Liberator, went about in a helmet and a bulletproof flak jacket, remained inside the Green Zone and was in Baghdad for a day. The other, from the Axis of Evil went around in his robes, stayed for the better part of the week, went to Najaf for an audience with Ayatollah Sistani, made his peace with the Iraqis and also met more people than Rice could. The significance of the meeting would not – hopefully --have been lost on the Americans. So far the Shias in Iraq have been kept under a tight leash and could at any time cut loose with the Badr Brigade – the military wing of the Shia Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq showing a growing tendency not to obey calls for self-restraint. With civil war type conditions already rearing their head, the Iranian role would become more relevant in Iraq.
What is happening in Iraq is not just a growing sectarian divide or a civil war. It is not terrorism or insurgency inspired by a ‘foreign hand’; it is more a national resistance against a foreign invader and against foreign occupation. While there are voices in USA that want their countrymen to pull out, US Generals warn of a long haul. Having entered the country under various pretexts but really to ensure the supply of cheap oil, the forces cannot leave without securing their primary objectives. Does one hear echoes of Vietnam?
If the Americans stay on in Iraq they would need to give up resurrecting pliable leaders with a dubious past and uncertain future and talk to the resistance to ensure some level of peace. A policy of not talking to them simply because you do not ‘like’ them or they have outsmarted Pentagon, is a self-defeating policy. It only shows exasperation, impatience and is ultimately self-defeating. Otherwise there are going to be more Osama bin Ladens and al-Zarqawis. Without this arrangement of a dialogue, the battle will only get bloodier and bloodier.
Two years after President Bush proclaimed Mission Accomplished in Iraq, Americans and Iraqis continue to die; the insurgency is now full blown and the country has become a fertile ground for recruiting terrorists. There are about 18,000 to 24,000 Iraqi civilian fatalities but no one really cares. There were of course no WMDs, there was no connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam, and the Iraqis were not involved in the September 11 attacks. Not only that, America with a tarnished image, no longer looks invincible. This would give courage to Iran, the next country on the hit list.
Maybe the following might help the USA –
“A great nation is like a great man: When he makes a mistake, he realises it. Having realized it, he admits it. Having admitted it, he corrects it. He considers those who point out his faults as his most benevolent teachers. He thinks of his enemy as the shadow that he himself casts. If a nation is centred in the Tao, if it nourishes its own people and doesn't meddle in the affairs of others, it will be a light to all nations in the world." Lao Tzu - in Tao Te Ching, Chapter 61
Source : The Hindustan Times, June 1, 2005
“A phenomenon noticeable throughout history regardless of place or period is the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests. Mankind, it seems, makes a poorer performance of government than of any other human activity. In this sphere, wisdom, which may be defined as the exercise of judgment acting on experience, common sense and available information, is less operative and more frustrated than it should be. Why do holders of high office so often act contrary to the way reason points and enlightened self-interest suggests?” Barbara Tuchman in her book, “The March of Folly – from Troy to Vietnam.” Had she been alive today, she would probably have replaced Vietnam with Iraq in the title.
The latest is the Iraq theatre where one folly follows another, one insensitivity follows another. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and Baghram symbolise this. The Islamic world is in the throes of protest because of the reports of desecration of the Holy Book. Continued occupation of Iraq and the daily dose of humiliation of the people during midnight raids, searches and detentions at unknown places is par for the course. All the unthinking brutality that signifies a desperate and exasperated occupying force is presumably designed to instill fear but is ending up arousing hatred and anger. A young blogger described Baghdad as a giant graveyard.
Following a brutal fortnight which saw nearly 500 deaths in Iraq, in revenge attacks and sectarian violence, Condoleezza Rice arrived in Baghdad to pronounce: “We are grateful that there are Americans willing to sacrifice so the Middle East will be whole and free and democratic and at peace”, she said. Ordinary Iraqis don’t think so and now refer to the state of affairs as “bloodocracy.” If genuine democracy were to indeed blossom in Iraq the following could happen. The Iraqis would oppose privatisation of their economy which gave the outsiders (read Americans, Halliburton, Bechtel) control, they would not want the Americans to stay on nor pay for the military bases, and finally or perhaps foremost, they would want control of oil themselves. In which case would democracy in Iraq be a primary US objective?
More and more Americans (58 %) are wary about wanting to make sacrifices. Bob Herbert writing in the New York Times earlier this month described what one of the army reserves who opted out from Iraq had to say. Soldiers heading off to Iraq were briefed how they would kill a few “ragheads” and burn their turbans. Young American soldiers driving around in their Humvees would routinely shatter empty Coke bottles on the heads of Iraqi civilians passing by. Or kick young six-year olds in the chest, or tie school children with the Humvees’ steel antennae. And Iraqis are also referred to as “Hajis” just as the Vietnamese were called “gooks” or “Charlies”.
According to a survey by the International Republican Institute, Iraqis have to endure about 12,000 patrols every week, omni-present and omni-powerful check points, where at those manned by the Americans, 90 civilians have been killed in the two years up to April 2005 because soldiers manning these positions were poorly trained and equipped. There have been about 8000 raids since May 2003 and more than 80,000 Iraqis have been rounded up since April 2003. Iraqis can now establish their identities only through papers issued by what is increasingly seen as an invading force. They have lost the right to show their own papers and thus lost their identities and their self-respect.
A UN survey called “Iraq Living Conditions Survey 2004” found that following the US-led invasion conditions in Iraq had deteriorated at alarming rate. Vast numbers of people lack access to basic services like clean water, food, health care, electricity, jobs and sanitation. Child malnutrition has increased, infant mortality is up and there are no funds for hospitals. The situation is much worse when compared to 1980. The great promise of economic emancipation under a free democracy has not even begun to take any shape. Sure there are bulldozers and cranes in Baghdad only for constructing new and bigger military bases and not for any infrastructure development. The IMF and World Bank are as usual being unhelpful and unimaginative.
Rice’s visit was followed by the visit of Iranian Foreign Minister, Kamal Kharrazi to Iraq. The contrast was an eloquent testimony. Rice, the Liberator, went about in a helmet and a bulletproof flak jacket, remained inside the Green Zone and was in Baghdad for a day. The other, from the Axis of Evil went around in his robes, stayed for the better part of the week, went to Najaf for an audience with Ayatollah Sistani, made his peace with the Iraqis and also met more people than Rice could. The significance of the meeting would not – hopefully --have been lost on the Americans. So far the Shias in Iraq have been kept under a tight leash and could at any time cut loose with the Badr Brigade – the military wing of the Shia Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq showing a growing tendency not to obey calls for self-restraint. With civil war type conditions already rearing their head, the Iranian role would become more relevant in Iraq.
What is happening in Iraq is not just a growing sectarian divide or a civil war. It is not terrorism or insurgency inspired by a ‘foreign hand’; it is more a national resistance against a foreign invader and against foreign occupation. While there are voices in USA that want their countrymen to pull out, US Generals warn of a long haul. Having entered the country under various pretexts but really to ensure the supply of cheap oil, the forces cannot leave without securing their primary objectives. Does one hear echoes of Vietnam?
If the Americans stay on in Iraq they would need to give up resurrecting pliable leaders with a dubious past and uncertain future and talk to the resistance to ensure some level of peace. A policy of not talking to them simply because you do not ‘like’ them or they have outsmarted Pentagon, is a self-defeating policy. It only shows exasperation, impatience and is ultimately self-defeating. Otherwise there are going to be more Osama bin Ladens and al-Zarqawis. Without this arrangement of a dialogue, the battle will only get bloodier and bloodier.
Two years after President Bush proclaimed Mission Accomplished in Iraq, Americans and Iraqis continue to die; the insurgency is now full blown and the country has become a fertile ground for recruiting terrorists. There are about 18,000 to 24,000 Iraqi civilian fatalities but no one really cares. There were of course no WMDs, there was no connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam, and the Iraqis were not involved in the September 11 attacks. Not only that, America with a tarnished image, no longer looks invincible. This would give courage to Iran, the next country on the hit list.
Maybe the following might help the USA –
“A great nation is like a great man: When he makes a mistake, he realises it. Having realized it, he admits it. Having admitted it, he corrects it. He considers those who point out his faults as his most benevolent teachers. He thinks of his enemy as the shadow that he himself casts. If a nation is centred in the Tao, if it nourishes its own people and doesn't meddle in the affairs of others, it will be a light to all nations in the world." Lao Tzu - in Tao Te Ching, Chapter 61
Source : The Hindustan Times, June 1, 2005
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