How long will it take until Iraq can have peace? I don't know. Will the "coalition of the willing" bring it? Again, I don't know. Somehow, I get the suspicion that the Bush administration is looking for an easy exit. They continue to press on handing over government action to Iraqi officials quickly.
Sounds good? Yes, sounds good. But it might be done for a selfish purpose: If Iraqis are in power again, the Bush administration can claim not to be responsible anymore and pull the troops out...
To what end? My guess is that after a sizable period of total chaos a fundamentalistic system will emerge. The Middle East won't get safer but more instable than it already is. That doesn't sound so good, does it?
I have been following the news about the torture scandal for several weeks now. Up until now, I didn't want to write anything about it, because the facts were not easy to comprehend. Furthermore it seemed unclear whether the accusations are thruthful or if the pictures were forged. In the blogs I read, this issue has hardly been discussed as well. Maybe it is time for this, now.
I just read a lenghty essay in New York Times (online) Magazine by Susan Sontag about the torture pictures from Iraq.
(If you don't already have a free nytimes account you need to open one in order to read the article.)
While I don't agree with everything she says, I fully support her criticism towards holding "detainees" indefinitely. America came to bring law and order and freedom (or so Bush said). Some U.S. soldiers seem to have missed that during briefing. (Referring to the torture/abuse scandal)
The other explanation, of course, would be all the more horrible... that soldiers might have been briefed to abuse the prisoners. Would that surprise us? Not me. Maybe that sort of thing is bound to happen if government officials keep saying: "THEY attacked us, we strike back." Iraq attacked? With what? Where is the clear link to Al Qaeda? It's here. Oh, and while we are on the subject... where are the Iraqi WMD?
Many people around the world, but especially in the Middle East, might regard the photos as proof for an American attitude of superiority. An attitude that says we are better than you, we have a right for our liberties but you don't. You are just like dogs therefore you get leashed.
Of course, this doesn't do the majority of Americans justice. So many Americans I know are just proud of their country. Why not? However, I don't agree with the Bush administration to label the tortures in Iraq un-american. There is no such thing. Bad people live in all countries.
America stands for a lot of good things, even for some "good" wars. But it has a record of atrocities as well. Which country doesn't? Still, some Americans tend to forget their own share of it. Slaugther of civilians in Vietnam, genocide on the American Indians, Concentration camps for Japanese during WW2... Today similar camps exist as well. Look to Cuba or to the prisons in Afghanistan and Iraq.
(Another issue would be the detention of German soldiers at the end of WW2 on the "Rheinwiesen". It is hard to find reliable sources on this. Official sources indicate that 5000 to 10000 people died of starvation and deseases in the swamp-like Rheinwiesen. Inofficial numbers go up to 750000. The issue is not widely discussed. Unfortunately, most sources seem to come from a right-wing background. Therefore they may very well be biased. So at the moment I can not tell you which numbers are correct.)
Are these things un-american? What is American? Hamburgers and BBQ or guns and lynch law? Labeling the tortures in Iraq un-american is the attempt to find an easy way out of this mess. It implies: "Just a few erroneous soldiers, but the system is great." I challenge the notion of moral superiority.
Democracy lives because of checks and balances. Even in times of war this should not be forgotten. Sad thing is, the war on terror seems to justify almost anything.
EDIT: I posted this last night at 2.30 in the morning. I was very sleepy, so I didn't make myself clear at all points. I tried to correct that this morning.
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7 comments:
"Will the "coalition of the willing" bring [peace]?"
>>I'm beginning to think that the only causal connection b/w the "coalition of the willing" (or as some say, the "coalition of the US and the coerced,") and future peace in Iraq will be somewhat indirect, via the forcible removal of Saddam Hussein. Iraqis, like the Shi'ites, who once cheered the US effort are now screaming "get out!" and setting roadside bombs to kill Ami soldiers. It seems that both sides of the divide - Shi'ite and Sun'ni, are uniting for the first time in a long time in despising the US presence. They want self governance. They're saying this clearer every passing day.
And in my opinion, the objective has been obtained. Hussein's government is quashed, and the core of a new government has been formed. By handing over power to this government, the US will indicate it's intention NOT to remain in Iraq any longer than necessary, and will take some of the wind out of insurgents' sails, if you will.
As an American, and a "liberal hawk" politically, I believe that the effort in Iraq was not in vein, but I think power should be conveyed to the Iraqi government as expeditiously as possible. Now out from under Hussein's boot, Iraqis have the choice as to their governance and internal security. This may produce another fundamentalist government, maybe not. Whatever it is, Iraqis ought to decide.
"Another issue would be the detention of German soldiers at the end of WW2 on the "Rheinwiesen"."
>>Interesting. Never heard of this. I'll dig around at the libraries at my University's libraries this weekend. If I find anything, I'll let you know here.
on the Rheinwiesen thing:
you can look for books by James Bacque, a Canadian historian.
I have not read anything by him, so I can't tell you whether he is a revisionist, racist, NAZI or truthful.
I first heard from the Rheinwiesen thing through word of mouth. From veterans in my family.
I have not heard anything about it from official sources (like school).
This is why I am trying to be careful not to blindly believe the thruthfulness of that story. Good luck obtaining information.
BTW, I think the reviews of Bacque's books on amazon.com nicely hint towards the controversy of the subject.
See also this for a rebuttal of Bacque's charges.
But again, I have only researched the books by now. I haven't read them yet.
I couldn't find anything about Rheinwiesen. I couldn't even find anything written by Bacque, which is really quite bothersome considering that I live five minutes from Windsor, Canada, and there are literally hundreds upon hundreds of Canadians studying at my university.
Perhaps I could search the University of Windsor's libraries ...
Hmm.
Maybe Bacque is something like an outcast because of his positions. I would be surprised, though, if that was the reason for not having his books.
I mean you can even run around with Nazi symbols in the US, right? Freedom of speech and opinion is broader in that sense than in Germany.
But I don't mean to criticise the German practise. Considering our past it may be quite reasonable not to allow Nazi speeches. nazi books or nazi symbols.
War is a horrible thing. People die. Bad stuff happens. It's a grim, nasty, unpleasant mess.
As an American, I've noticed our people tend to forget this.
I'm not saying it's right. Quite the contrary. Everyone should live in the happy little peace-bubbles the Americans do.
I come from a generation that seems to think the world owes them something. We were raised in perfect, mommy-says-I'm-special bubbles. War is only something crazy, violent old men (who keep rambling about some mythical, wretched, far-off place called Veitnam) rant and grumble about and something people make multi-million dollar movies
about.
Movies where the Americans are the good guys. No matter what fragment of history we're looking at, we're the good guys.
Speaking as a member of a generation practically raised by pop-culture media, that leaves an impression after a bit.
An impression and an attitude. We're American. We're John Wayne and Ben Affleck.
A friend of mine, Chad, (who's in the USAF) was over in Israel for a bit. There was a protest of sorts going on. Bulldozers on one side. Lines of people on the other.
A girl from California stepped in front of one of the Bulldozers. Proclaimed loudly and proudly her American heritage.
Chad says he can still see the bloodstain.
Our history has made us arrogant. Our media makes us ignorant. We can't believe people hate us. We're Perfect Americans. What hae we ever done to them?
Our media, yes. Our news is monitored by our government. The big issue regarding the soldiers and the tortured prisoners...we're lead to think that such things are the worst we've done over there. That such heinous acts against humanity are poo-pooed by our leaders.
And they'll never do it again.
But it's war...it's a nasty, horrible mess.
I'm sure we've done far worse.
But our Disney-tainted minds can't begin to conceive of such.
thank you for your comment.
I guess there is some truth in the observation that Us TV and the movies somehow glorify the nation when in fact it has quite the same amount of shortcomings as most other nations do.
Well, it is always easy to point at others and a lot harder to see the problems in one's own neighbourhood.
Being aware of that, I am trying not to be blind to what goes wrong in my country, my city, my life.
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