In Iraq, Even The Good News Is Bad
By Richard Davis (12/15/04)
As the sand quagmires around Baghdad, even the most steadfast neocon must be having a few second thoughts about our grand scheme to transform the Middle East. The terrorists have gained the upper hand, the election may actually undermine our goals, and the morale of our troops is beginning to show some chinks in its armor. Is the grand scheme about to become the grandiose delusion?
The little good news that does trickle out of the desert these days is invariably accompanied by bad. The long-awaited election is only a few weeks away, bloody ballots and all. Unfortunately, voters are going to elect democracy-hating Shia theocrats. The likely prime minister? Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, a Shia cleric and leader of the Iranian-backed Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri). Goodbye Saddam, hello Ayatollah. We can’t win for losing.
The belated assault on Fallujah was good. Announcing our intentions days in advance, allowing all of the leaders and most of the insurgents to escape, was not good. Nor was permitting cameras from a hostile press to shadow our men into combat. Now we have a stronger, decentralized insurgency inflicting mayhem on Iraqis at will and a regional Arab populace more inflamed than before.
The exasperating degree of incompetence demonstrated in this occupation is almost unfathomable--and apparently irremediable. That’s reason enough to be looking for the exits. We’re just not up to the task. If our perduring ineptitude had been figured into the pre-war equation Saddam and his phantom WMDs might still be in place.
When George Bush envisaged a liberated Iraq he pictured Germany and Japan, perhaps even Afghanistan, though that’s a work in progress. No one can fault the nobility of Bush’s vision, but he should have pictured Algeria as well. The terrorists certainly did. That bloodbath is the blueprint they are following.
So is there any way out of this disaster short of total defeat and humiliation? Algeria provides the answer for that too--no, there isn’t. Ask the French. You could even ask the swift-boat veterans.
In Vietnam we fought peasants as determined and hardnosed as they come, but their tactics pale beside the ruthlessness of these jihadists. They’ll gladly slaughter their own friends and neighbors in the most barbaric means imaginable to get their way--and their way leads nowhere. Forty two years and hundreds of thousands of murders after the French departed, Algeria remains a hell hole.
We can’t defeat savages maddened by hate and death-cult fantasies and backed by a powerful propaganda machine (which we won’t touch), a religion that engenders and sanctions their violent pathologies, seemingly unlimited caches of money and weapons supplied by sympathetic neighbors (whom we won’t touch) and the public support of millions of Muslims worldwide. Even America’s so-called moderate Muslims would rather see an Iraq in murderous ruin than a democratic one fashioned by their fellow Americans. They’ll almost certainly get their wish.
Disabuse yourself of the Muslim notion that we’re confronting “freedom” fighters resisting an unjust occupation. If ridding Iraq of Americans were their goal they’d never fire another shot. Had there been no violence and had Iraqis peacefully taken control of their own affairs Americans would be scarce commodities today. Look at the Kurdish territory.
The insurgents are killing for no reason except their own depravity and the wantonness of their beliefs. That’s old news in this civilization. The Husseins aren’t the anomalies here; we are.
Conventional wisdom says we need to get tougher. We have to stop fighting a politically correct war, one in which we’ll accept casualties rather than bad PR. But Algeria revealed unequivocally that you can’t out-brutalize these people. The French tried, and they limped away bloodied and defeated. There but for the grace of God will go us before long.
Perhaps I’m misreading the situation and there is just cause for Bush’s belligerent optimism. Maybe peace and democracy will soon blossom, the Shias will forswear theocracy, the Sunnis will accept representative government and the Great Transformation will be underway. Perhaps in celebration flowers will sprout from the butts of camels and pollinate the desert.
But from this vantage point it’s beginning to appear as if forcing freedom and democracy on Muslims may have its limitations. Even in Afghanistan democracy is dependent solely on our soldiers. Five minutes after they leave, so will it. As Winston Churchill noted about Islam not that many years ago, “No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.” That is why in the Middle East even the good news is really just bad news waiting to be told.
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