Lest We Forget

There are human beings on the ground throughout Iraq, neither insurgent nor coalition soldiers, who are living in the midst of this violence and madness. I've been trying to read all the Iraqi blogs I can get my hands on, and coupled with first hand accounts from fleeing journalists I feel a growing sense of dread. Not only for American operations in Iraq, though I fear our soldiers are seeing the very beginning of a long and bloody war of attrition, but for the innocents who find themselves caught in the middle of these opposing factions. Raed's mother Faiza made this heartbreaking post yesterday evening:

Wednesday, April07 ,2004
Dear Raed…
Baghdad is calm today…
But it is seems like a frightening silence that hides a big explosion…
We asked in the morning about the bombs of yesterday…
It appeared that the American tanks were targeting some shops in the main market.
Thank God those shops were closed.
But many people told us that they saw an American APC burning in the night and it was removed in the early morning…
Americans are gathering near the entrance of our neighborhood…
Tanks and soldiers with machine guns…
They look terrifying…
They are staying away from the centers of the Iraqis with RPGs...
Everyone is expecting another long night full of violence…
We will spend the night in the "Safe Room",
The one we used to hide in last year during the war!
The news of Falluja is not clear,
But I heard that people are arranging a blood donation campaign.
They say that hospitals are full with injured and killed people.
Only god can protect us from what's happening…
These days are much darker than the days of Saddam Husein.

I pray to God the family is safe. When I showed Faiza's post to my wife last night, what struck her was the language of the post itself. "My God," she said to me, eyes wide, "the poor woman. Who talks like that? American APCs and RPGs--what sort of talk is that for a mother?" The vocabulary you pick up on, living in a warzone...

I had thought the ultimate eventual outcome of a botched occupation and politically hastened withdrawal would be a four-pronged civil war in Iraq, Kurds, Shi'a, Sunnis and the coalition, but for now that seems to be at least one front too many. There's every possibility that post-occupation, whenever, if ever, that may be, the Shi'ite and Sunni populations (at least those who represent the current uprising) will again turn on each other, but for the time being they have found a common enemy in the US and have publicly declared their mutual cooperation and common goal. The Kurds, no doubt, must be getting nervous as well. The violence is not limited to the Sunni triangle and the southern Shiite cities. It has reached northward into at least Kirkuk.

This is a horrible and bloody entanglement George bush has led America into, a disturbing situation of our own making. Now though, any possible answer must necessarily preclude abandoning Iraq (which would surely explode into civil war). We can't leave. You would expect to see a president and his secretary of state canvassing the globe for assistance in the face of a situation such as this. Civilians are being abducted and taken hostage throughout the country. Battles are raging in nearly every major population center and as of this writing (earlier actually, since I'm writing disconnected from the Web) Shi'ite militiamen have taken at least partial control of two cities and are in full command of a third.

Now is the time to be engaging, NATO, the UN, Muslim Arab nations; the time to build the sort of broad based coalition necessary to undertake what is not only the most ambitious "nation building" effort in modern history, but who's outcome is also a matter of grave importance to entire world. The sort of coalition Bush would have needed to make this action a success in the first place. Hat in hand if need be, we need to be gathering aid and support for this undertaking. The Bush administration never ceases to amaze me. As always, there is but one arrow in his quiver; as he has his one economic strategy, tax cuts, whether they perform as promised or not, he has but one understanding of military action. Answer any and every threat with a show of massive force.

Richard Clarke hit the nail on the head when he revealed the Iraqi policy as a major strategic blunder in the wider war on terrorism. Possibly owing to their general disrespect for counter-terrorism operations pre-9/11 and therefore a simple lack of education on the matter, they still seem to be unable to get their heads around what sort of enemy we're up against. By our actions in Iraq, we have not only turned bin Laden's propaganda into prophecy (a major recruiting point for al Qaeda had always been what they saw as America's ultimate aim: to invade and occupy an oil-rich Muslim country), we keep feeding into his strategic goal. Massive shows of military force destroy civilian lives. Lives, God forbid, like those of Faiza's family. These same military operations only serve to steel the resolve of guerillas, and terrorists. By proving ourselves a violent and oppressive occupying force, we personify the prevailing understanding of America as an imperialist force in the world. As former NSC staff member Jessica Stern says in her opinon piece in Salon:

The war in Iraq has split the allies, not the terrorists. It has turned Iraq into a Mecca for international terrorists, and mobilized local Shiite and Salafi jihadist groups that had previously posed a minimal threat. It has facilitated connections between terrorists and those with formal military experience in Saddam's army, the lethal nightmare that the invasion was supposed to have thwarted. Antipathy toward the United States, not only in Iraq and throughout the entire Islamic world, but in Europe as well, has become a dangerous trend exploited by terrorists. Even as we tout our successes in rounding up al-Qaida terrorists, the broader movement inspired by bin Laden and ignited by the invasion of Iraq is recruiting new nihilist minions throughout the world. The war in Iraq has not only been a distraction from the war on terrorism; it has strengthened our enemies in ways that continue to surprise and horrify us. Where will we be surprised next?

Let's also not forget that, before the coalition had padlocked its doors, Moqtada Sadr's newspaper may have been printing inflammatory articles, but his followers had not yet picked up gun one. In addition to showing characteristic hypocrisy (establishing a democracy on the one hand while quashing a free press with the other) by taking this action, by shutting down a voice and venue for ideas (no matter how unpalatable), they have unwittingly turned words and ideas into deadly action, into bullets and grenades, casulties and hostages. And they have, at last, proven Bush to be the uniter, and not divider, he promised to be. That he has united historic enemies in the common goal of driving American forces from Iraq while dividing America itself like at no other time in modern history, would bring even the most hardened soul some pause. I can only wonder what George Bush tells himself when it comes to this sad irony.