|
 The
End Begins in Iraq
Taking care of their own…
[by Mac Johnson] 11/23/05
Last week
saw the most important development in Iraq since the invasion
began. This momentous event is the beginning
of the end of the American war in Iraq
and will--if not reversed--lead to partial U.S. disengagement sooner rather
than later.
And, no,
I am not talking about Rep. Jim Murtha’s embarrassing
pants-wetting session before the U.S. media, in which he declared
defeat and retreat in the panicked, exaggerated tones of a
paranoid chat room gasbag. As well publicized as Murtha’s
wobbly soliloquy was, it was of transient consequence.
Contributor
Mac
Johnson
Mac
Johnson is a freelance writer and biologist in Cambridge,
Mass. Mr. Johnson holds a Doctorate in Molecular and
Cellular Biology from Baylor College of Medicine. He
is a frequent opinion contributor to Human
Events Online. His website can be found at macjohnson.com [go
to Johnson index]
|
No, the event
that could end the war was the discovery of a “torture
center”_ being run in an Iraqi government detention facility
in Baghdad. The facility housed 175 Sunni Arab insurgents--some
foreign, some Iraqi--that were being questioned under duress
by Shiite soldiers of the U.S.-backed, democratically-elected
government of Iraq. The prisoners were underfed and by all appearances
had been physically beaten. But, thankfully, no one had had a
pair of panties placed upon his head or had been forced to play
naked Twister, so it wasn’t as bad as the crimes against
humanity committed at Abu Ghraib. Still, it was quite a scene,
as non-American scandals go.
The Western media
enthusiastically reported the story as the latest in a long
series of blows to the U.S.-led war effort and
concluded that it will only make things worse for the U.S. in
Iraq. That’s an amazing thing, really, since these same
media outlets report every week that things can’t get any
worse in Iraq.
But this scandal will definitely not make things worse for us
in Iraq. To begin with, this is how civil wars are won--by cruelty
and bloodletting and nastiness and calculated barbarity. I do
not glorify this fact. I simply report it. Civil wars end when
one side is broken of the will to fight any longer. And since
both sides are fighting for their homeland and their freedom,
civil wars are fought with an almost frantic inhumanity on both
sides. They are among the most vicious of wars.
The genius of the
elections in Iraq, from the point of view of America, is that
they transformed what was rapidly degenerating
into a widespread war of “national liberation”_ against
the U.S. occupier into a civil war--one in which 80% of Iraqis
(the Kurds and the Shia Arabs) are on our declared side--the
side of Democracy in Iraq.
As I have said before,
majorities LOVE Democracy; and the Shiites of Iraq, along with
their Kurdish allies, have thus embraced
it with great enthusiasm. The Sunni Arabs, however, being the
minority who ruled Iraq under Saddam Hussein, are not at all
looking forward to “majority rules”_ government,
so they have turned to the insurgency to try to re-establish
themselves as the dictatorial rulers of Iraq.
This feat will be possible, though, only if the 80% of Iraqis
who are not Sunni Arabs refuse to fight the total war that the
Sunni insurgents have initiated. But everyday, there are more
stories of Sunnis disappearing in the night, of assassinations
of Sunni imams, of mass graves and heavy-handed round ups of
Sunni Arab men by the Shiite and Kurd dominated government. These
stories are harsh to the ears of Americans and Europeans. But
then we are not the ones having our children and neighbors blown
up by Sunni terrorists in the marketplaces and mosques of Iraq.
And these stories demonstrate that the majority who voted for
the government of Iraq is willing to fight for the government
of Iraq--and fight dirty if need be.
Since history is often
just demographics, this means that the war is all but won.
It is only a question of time and cost. But
this is not why I call the discovery of the torture center “the
beginning of the end”_ of the war for U.S. forces. It is
because the event could convince the Iraqis that America may
not be the best ally to have on the ground during the endgame
of this war.
The Iraqi government has benefited greatly from the U.S. presence.
We have provided the muscle, the training, the money, and the
time to establish the new government and allow it to gain experience.
It might be tempting,
therefore, for the new government to ask us to stay for years
more to continue to provide our considerable
firepower, troops and resources. But it will probably not do
so, especially now. You see, the Iraqi “prisoner abuse”_
was discovered by U.S. troops--who dutifully and lawfully reported
it to their superiors, who then dutifully informed the world
press.
Our Iraqi allies must be fuming with disbelief. They take the
harsh steps they see as necessary to break the Sunni Arab networks,
(a job we have failed to accomplish) and then we intentionally
expose their operation and cost them a huge propaganda defeat.
Every day, the Iraqi
government forces grow stronger and more capable of providing
their own protection. And every day, America’s
assistance must seem to them more like an anchor around their
necks than a shield by their sides. While our soldiers perform
historic feats, the American press, government, and many of her
people have unrealistic expectations of what war is and how it
should proceed.
The soldiers of the
new Iraq are not worried about the New York Times, or Amnesty
International, or Ted Kennedy, or John McCain.
They are worried about the Sunni Arab insurgents that fight a
desperate terror war to re-oppress them. And when these soldiers
come to believe that America’s presence in Iraq is harming
that effort more than helping it, the Iraqi government will ask
us to withdraw--probably to supporting bases just distant enough
from the cities to keep us out of the way while they finish their
war, their way.
The war might soon
end for America simply because the Iraqis may conclude that
we don’t know how to fight it realistically.
If so, they will ask us to leave. We can declare victory. And
then they will actually achieve the victory we were unwilling
to stain our hands with.
War is the disciplined application of evil to an enemy you wish
to break to your will, or annihilate. Hopefully, your will is
a greater good that justifies such calculated inhumanity. But
war, if fought properly, should be Hell--for your opponent. Currently,
we seem to want to make sure that war is fair and humane for
our enemy. Such righteousness is a luxury we can afford only
because we are not the ones fighting in our own homeland to save
our neighborhoods from mass murderers like Abu Musab Al Zarqawi
and his followers.
One day that may change, and so will we. But for now, our illusions
about the possibility of clean, precise and pleasant war continue.
President Bush has
rightly said that “as the Iraqis stand
up, we shall stand down.” We should not be surprised, however,
to find that when the Iraqis finally do stand up, they are standing
on someone’s neck. -one-
This piece
first appeared at Human Events Online
copyright
2005 Mac Johnson
§
|
