The Poet's Eye 
                    commentary by Lightning Rod

the Poets' Eye is skeptical
without being cynical, innocent
without being naive and
critical without being
judgemental

War Is An Ugly Business

05-02-04

This week has seen events in Iraq that draw yet another uncomfortable comparisson with Vietnam. The abuse of civilians and prisoners in Iraq is hauntingly familiar to those of us who remember Mai Lai.

In the seventh century when the Mohammaden armies were conquering the Arab world, the tactic was thus: The Moslems were known as fierce and cruel fighters who gave no quarter in battle. But they were also known as reasonably benevolent rulers. All the conquered populace had to do was convert to Islam or pay a tax, something like a bushel of wheat, every year. For these reasons, when the Muslim armies came to a city, the inhabitants would usually lay down their arms peacefully and allow the conquest to commence. Then, while under the nominal rule of the Caliphate in Baghdad, the citizens of the conquered territory would pretty much go back to life as usual.

In this way the World of Islam preserved civilization during what we in the West casually call the Middle Ages. If you'll remember, this was the period when Europe was lost in a quagmire of religious wars and feudalism. Theocracy prevailed in Europe when the Arabs were advancing science, medicine and mathematics.

The Arabs are used to the tactic of falling back in order to reclaim their territory by increments. And that is exactly what we are observing in Iraq. The moment that all significant military resistance dissolved during the invasion of Iraq and the army disappeared into the populace, The Poet's Eye saw what was in store--a nagging and sustained querilla war.

Reports indicate that the atrocities that we have observed in the widely publicized pictures from Iraq this week are part of a more systemic and widespread pattern of abuse. War is ugly business. I'm sure that the Army will serve up its modern version of Lt. Calley to be the scapegoat for the current wave of brutality. Some young National Guardsmen will swing for this, but the politicos who sent a bunch of twenty year old kids halfway around the world to administer foreign policy are really the ones to blame.

"The Army has responded as it usually does when confronted with a major scandal. Lieutenant Calley will be given a general court-martial on charges of premeditated murder. Selecting a lower echelon officer to take the rap for the top brass is, of course, standard operating procedure in the Army." --The Nation, referring to the 1969 trial of Lt. Calley.

This week Paul Rieckhoff, an Army veteran from the Iraqi War was the spokesman in the Democratic response to President Bush's Saturday radio address. He said, "I don't expect our leaders to be free of mistakes, I expect our leaders to own up to them."

President Bush: "I can't think of any mistakes I may
have made at this point in time."

Wolfowitz and Perl and Cheney and the other neo-con American Century zealots who are running our foreign policy think of themselves as smart fellows, I'm sure. But what were they thinking when they launched a war in Iraq supposing that we would waltz in on a trail of flower petals? Saddam may have been a tyrant, but he was THEIR tryant. If US troops had begun withdrawing the moment Saddam's statue hit the asphalt, then perhaps we would have been seen as liberators. Now we are viewed as what we are: occupiers.

In the face of overwhelming force, and given the fact that Iraq's airforce and military infrastructure had already been crippled in the previous Gulf War, what other reasonable military tactic could be expected but for the formal army to fade into the countryside and fight a guerilla war? I guess the neo-cons are too busy making history to study it.

There were no graphic photos of Mai Lai. Today's wars and revolutions are definitely televised. The recent disclosures, complete with graphic evidence, of the atrocities in Iraq, are going to be more resonant than the thousands of atrocities of wars past. The world is duly shocked at the mistreatment of prisoners and civilians in Iraq. The President and the Prime Minister are tsk tsking the disgraces, but they admit no complicity.

The Poet's Eye sees that America has waded into a desert swamp. We've mixed blind ambition with arrogance, and it strangles up our minds.

"One was Texas medicine
and the other was just railroad gin
and like a fool I mixed them
and it strangled up my mind
now people just get uglier
and I have no sense of time."
_B. Dylan

"Come on all you big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again
He's got himself in a terrible jam..."
--Country Joe McDonald

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Lieutenant Calley
Mai Lai War Crimes Scapegoat