People Die
There’s a tendency to use bloodless language when talking about war. “Surgical strike”, “smart bomb”, “precision bombing”; all intended to convey an image of a nice, neat, clean war, where nobody but bad guys get killed. Of course, in reality, people die in wars. Over 2500 US soldiers have died in Iraq, and over 10 times that many Iraqis. There seems to be this belief that the next bright, shiny, new technology will make war obsolete or safe, but technology never makes war safe or obsolete. It just kills more people at once.
In fact, technology kills so many people at once that it’s next to worthless against an insurgency. There’s no massed army to bomb in an insurgency; if you bomb an area, you’re likely to kill more non-combatants than combatants. In fact, in an insurgency, it’s close to impossible to tell the difference. Today’s non-combatant may become tomorrow’s guerrilla, finally pushed over the edge by the death of a loved one or by one too many indignities suffered at the hands of an occupying force.
For, make no mistake, that’s what we are in Iraq: an occupying force. We show no sign of leaving a land that isn’t ours, there is no government independent of us, and we’re holed up in our “Green Zone”, insulated as much as possible from contact with the real Iraq. It’s hard to tell any difference between what we’re doing in Iraq, and what the Soviet Union did in Czechoslovakia, the British in India, or the Romans in Jerusalem.
Iraqis may be glad to see Saddam Hussein gone, but that doesn’t mean they want us there instead. Like other occupying forces, we don’t get that. “But we’re just trying to stabilize things; as soon as they’re ready, we’ll pull back.” Of course, they’re never ready. Has an occupying force ever left because the region was stable enough? Occupying forces leave when the steady drip-drip-drip of casualties cause citizens of the occupying force to be no longer willing to give their sons and daughters to the effort of occupying. It’s as true today as it was thirty years ago in Vietnam.
The only way to get our troops out of Iraq is to convince our elected officials that we’ve had enough, that we’re not willing to see any more flag-draped coffins in pursuit of a misguided foreign policy. Whether we leave in a staged, face-saving withdrawal or with the helicopters lifting off the roof depends on how urgently we get that message across.
People in Iraq will die when we leave. People in Iraq will die while we stay.
People die in wars.
In fact, technology kills so many people at once that it’s next to worthless against an insurgency. There’s no massed army to bomb in an insurgency; if you bomb an area, you’re likely to kill more non-combatants than combatants. In fact, in an insurgency, it’s close to impossible to tell the difference. Today’s non-combatant may become tomorrow’s guerrilla, finally pushed over the edge by the death of a loved one or by one too many indignities suffered at the hands of an occupying force.
For, make no mistake, that’s what we are in Iraq: an occupying force. We show no sign of leaving a land that isn’t ours, there is no government independent of us, and we’re holed up in our “Green Zone”, insulated as much as possible from contact with the real Iraq. It’s hard to tell any difference between what we’re doing in Iraq, and what the Soviet Union did in Czechoslovakia, the British in India, or the Romans in Jerusalem.
Iraqis may be glad to see Saddam Hussein gone, but that doesn’t mean they want us there instead. Like other occupying forces, we don’t get that. “But we’re just trying to stabilize things; as soon as they’re ready, we’ll pull back.” Of course, they’re never ready. Has an occupying force ever left because the region was stable enough? Occupying forces leave when the steady drip-drip-drip of casualties cause citizens of the occupying force to be no longer willing to give their sons and daughters to the effort of occupying. It’s as true today as it was thirty years ago in Vietnam.
The only way to get our troops out of Iraq is to convince our elected officials that we’ve had enough, that we’re not willing to see any more flag-draped coffins in pursuit of a misguided foreign policy. Whether we leave in a staged, face-saving withdrawal or with the helicopters lifting off the roof depends on how urgently we get that message across.
People in Iraq will die when we leave. People in Iraq will die while we stay.
People die in wars.
