A NO-WINNER
The first disastrous week of war foretells a dire future
Justin Raimondo
March 24, 2003
Up until Saturday our "embedded" media was projecting images of Iraqis dancing in the desert, delirious with joy at the arrival of their "liberators," but by Sunday morning the edges were already beginning to fray around the official story of a near-seamless "Operation Iraqi Freedom."
The U.S. media kept showing feel-good agit-prop as long as they could. We were treated to endless repetitions of that rather corny image of a portly Iraqi and a bunch of kids bouncing up and down with glee as a US soldier ripped down a portrait of Saddam in the border town of Safwan. National Review's Jonah Goldberg was quick to jump on it as evidence that he and his fellow laptop bombardiers had been right all along:
"There's every reason to assume that such stories will be multiplied a hundred, if not a thousand times over as U.S. forces approach the capital of the Republic of Fear."
Not so fast. By Sunday, reality was breaking through the obscuring mist of war propaganda, and Reuters was reporting the "liberation" of Safwan somewhat differently:
"As the convoy of British tanks and trucks rolled by, the Iraqi boys on the side of the road were all smiles and waves. But once it had passed, leaving a trail of dust and grit in its wake, their smiles turned to scowls. 'We don't want them here,' said 17-years-old Fouad, looking angrily up at the plumes of gray smoke rising from the embattled southern city of Basra, under attack from U.S. and British forces for more than two days. He pulled a piece of paper from the waistband of his trousers. Unfolding it, he held up a picture of Saddam Hussein. 'Saddam is our leader. Saddam is good,' he said defiantly, looking again at his well-worn picture showing the Iraqi leader with a benign smile, sitting on a majestic throne."
This was in southern Iraq, near Basra, the scene of a Shi'ite rebellion that was brutally crushed back in 1991,where the Americans expected to be greeted as heroes: one can only imagine how many Fouads there are in the north, closer to the seat of Saddam's power.
For the first few days, we saw only sanitized images of a clean, hassle-free war, amid hints of a winged victory beckoning in the near future. But that is fast giving way to the gritty reality of the quagmire we are falling into. The "cakewalk" that Richard Perle and his fellow chickenhawks confidently predicted, is turning into a forced march into Hell.
The dilapidated remnants of the Iraqi armed forces, starved by sanctions for spare parts and calories, consists mostly of conscripts: their televised surrender fueled the War Party's premature triumphalism. While thousands of Iraqis have thrown down their arms and been taken prisoner, it's not nearly as many as in Gulf War I, where entire divisions threw down their pathetic vintage rifles and waved the white flag of surrender. Perhaps they remember what happened last time around to tens of thousands of surrendering Iraqis, as reported by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker.
Refusing to be shocked and awed, the Iraqis are putting up a fight: as I write, Basra, the fall of which was assumed as a foregone conclusion, has yet to surrender. Umm Qasr, reported by Kuwait's state run KUNA news agency to have fallen, appears to be holding out. American forces are leaving these "pockets of resistance" in the dust, however, as they race toward Baghdad, determined to decapitate the regime.
But the road to Baghdad is not as smooth as we were led to believe in the debate leading up to this war. The President's recent prophecy that this was going to be a tougher battle than anyone ever imagined – now he tells us! – came just in time to be fulfilled.
One hundred miles south of Baghdad, Iraqi civilian militia engaged the invaders for more than seven hours, armed only with machineguns mounted on pick-up trucks. "It wasn't even a fair fight. I don't know why they don't just surrender," said U.S. Army Colonel Mark Hildenbrand.
His bafflement is the reason why the Americans cannot, in the end, win this war. Why do people fight against overwhelming odds, even when they know it's hopeless? The Colonel can't figure it out, and neither can his superiors. But any street-smart homie could tell them to expect a fight to the death when attacking some else's turf.
This war was never a fair fight. Iraq is a fifth-rate power, shrunken in military prowess by at least 30 percent since Gulf War I. But there are millions of Fouads in Iraq, and they are fighting back. Not for Saddam, or for the Baath Party, but due to the most basic of human instincts: hatred of foreign invaders. No amount of "shock and awe" will erase it from their hearts. Even after an American "victory," it will smolder, and its smoke will rise up and make the very air unbreathable for the occupiers.
In Nassiriyah, the American advance was stopped cold, as the "coalition" (i.e. the Americans) took as many as dozens of casualties - and at least five prisoners, including one woman. The Arabic television network Al-Jazeera showed Iraqi footage of dead and captive Americans. "I was just under orders," said one soldier, who gave his name only as Miller. "I don't want to kill anybody." Another prisoner, who gave his name as Joseph Hudson, and said he is from El Paso, Texas, was asked what he was doing in Iraq. "I follow orders," he answered. South African television reports that "he was asked repeatedly whether he was greeted by guns or flowers by Iraqis, but appeared not to understand the question."
At Sunday's Pentagon briefing, reporters were told that the battle of Nassiriyah was "successful," as the briefer recounted the losses of the enemy. Yet he also admitted that the Americans had been ambushed by a group of Iraqi "irregulars" who at first greeted the GIs as "liberators" – and then opened fire. The losses suffered at Nassiriyah are apparently the result of the Americans falling victim to their own propaganda.
Hubris turns out to be the chief weakness of the Americans, who, since 9/11, have seen events through the prism of a distorting self-righteousness that has blinded them – until now – to the consequences of this war. But the military setbacks are nothing compared to the geopolitical repercussions
more at
antiwar.com
This war may end very badly. Both for the Iraqis and the US. Apparently, Dubya's messianic visions are just plain delusions. |
