http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/dec/13/yehey
opinion/20041213opi4.html
http://tinyurl.com/57j2t
Monday, December 13, 2004
ERGO
By Leandro V. Coronel
Bush?s albatross
US PRESIDENT George W. Bush?s migraine in Iraq will get worse, much worse,
before it will improve, if at all. Despite America?s power, it was never
going to be a walk in the park.
Perhaps Bush?s reelection is his own punishment, so he can still be around
to bear Iraq as an albatross around his neck.
The Americans invaded Iraq expecting the Iraqis to line their streets
hailing US soldiers as their liberators. The Americans thought they would
be cheered like their counterparts in the Philippines who defeated the
Japanese.
But in Iraq there were no shouts of ?Welcome, Joe!? In fact, many Iraqis
have made it clear the Americans are unwelcome.
To this day, a year and a half after the initial bombing of the capital
Baghdad and other key cities, the Americans are still unwelcome. Some 1,200
American soldiers have died in Iraq, a relatively small number of
casualties in a war. But the American people are getting worried about the
continuing deaths among their soldiers. The casualties are being inflicted
by Iraqi rebel forces.
Elections have been set for January 30 in Iraq. And yet, insurgents continue
to fight the American forces/invaders. The election is going to be a farce.
And the fighting will continue. Iraq will continue to be in turmoil. It will
continue to be in chaos. It will continue to be Bush?s headache.
Lucky for Bush, it will only be a headache for him. He?s safely ensconced at
the White House.
For the Iraqi people, it?s been more than a nightmare, it?s been hell.
Estimates vary, but the civilian deaths in Iraq since the American invasion
have been pegged to as high as 100,000. The number of casualties rises
every day. The destruction in Iraq?s infrastructure is tremendous. The
emotional trauma among the population will haunt them forever.
The Americans have done it again: they?re turning a country into a desert.
In the name of what, democracy?
If Bush and his military planners think the election at the end of January
will put an end to their headaches, they?re sadly mistaken. While Iraq is
not quite like Vietnam, the situation in Iraq threatens to become another
protracted conflict.
Vietnam in the 1960s and 70s became a quagmire because there was an
organized and highly disciplined resistance against US interference. The
United States underestimated the resolve of the Vietnamese to fight the
American forces. After countless deaths among the Vietnamese people and
nearly 60,000 American soldiers, the war ended when America pulled out in
defeat.
In Iraq, the resistance to the American forces isn?t quite as organized and
massive as that by the Vietnamese. But the fighting is just as fierce. The
Americans, if they decide to stay in Iraq even after the elections in
January, will be in for a long and deadly campaign.
And now the American leadership is facing the beginnings of dissension from
an unlikely source: their own forces. The US government is hearing it from
its own soldiers.
The US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, must have been taken aback
when he went to Iraq last week, presumably to boost the morale of American
GIs there. Instead, Rumsfeld got an earful from his own troops.
The soldiers complained about risking their safety, indeed their lives,
because of a lack of proper equipment. According to the soldiers, their
vehicles aren?t armored enough for protection. Their armaments and
ammunition are supposedly inadequate.
The outspokenness of the soldiers was unusual, even astounding. American
soldiers don?t usually complain as loudly as Rumsfeld?s questioners did.
And if ever, never in public.
The soldiers? concerns aren?t the same as those of the war?s opponents. We
all remember that several major countries and important international
personalities, like the Pope, had opposed Bush?s threat to invade Iraq. But
Bush brushed aside the uproar and went ahead with his war.
But the soldiers? complaints point to something related to the global
opposition to the war. The soldiers? complaints hint at the unpreparedness
of US troops to wage a full-scale war. Before the soldiers aired their
grievances to Rumsfeld, observations had been trickling in about the
inadequate number of US troops (currently about 130,000) in Iraq and about
inadequate equipment and military hardware. Now it?s out in the open, the
soldiers themselves are complaining.
We all remember that one of the pleadings to Bush against starting the war
was to wait and see if Iraq really posed a threat to other countries for
having the so-called weapons of mass destruction (none of which has been
found). But Bush was itching for an invasion. So he invaded Iraq.
Today, the lack of preparedness of the US military to wage a full and
widescale war supports the charge that Bush rushed unduly to war.
But he is unrepentant. He insists he was right to invade Iraq even though
his reasons for waging war have proved false.
So maybe it?s fateful that Bush won reelection. So that he?ll be around to
suffer the pain of seeing his own soldiers continue to die. And to continue
wearing a heavy load around his neck.
--
Triratanam sharanam gaccami
Dharmananda
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