All of the good news about Iraq the press won’t print…
Posted by Charles II on August 19, 2007
…turns out to be not such good news after all. Seven members of the 82nd Airborne write in the NYT (via t/o)
Viewed from Iraq at the tail end of a 15-month deployment, the political debate in Washington is indeed surreal. Counterinsurgency is, by definition, a competition between insurgents and counterinsurgents for the control and support of a population. To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched. As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day. (Obviously, these are our personal views and should not be seen as official within our chain of command.)
The claim that we are increasingly in control of the battlefields in Iraq is an assessment arrived at through a flawed, American-centered framework. Yes, we are militarily superior, but our successes are offset by failures elsewhere. What soldiers call the “battle space” remains the same, with changes only at the margins.
As I can testify from our family’s experience, troops are incredibly loyal to their comrades and to the services. As a rule, they don’t speak out when they believe things are wrong, and not just because the military punishes those who do. They are systematically misinformed– overseas, they can listen to Draft Dodger Limbaugh, but not to Airman First Class Randi Rhodes. If they’ve suffered PTSD or just events that batter the spirit, they often hold it in, refuse help, or– if they ask for help– are denied it by the cheapskate Bush Administration.
If we could occupy Iraq for forty years, we could probably subjugate it– for a time. The reality is that we cannot even occupy it for 40 more months. This war has already gone on longer than World War II and consumed as much of our national energy, without yielding one tangible benefit.
Our press are telling us the good news, even when the real news is not so good.
9 Responses to “All of the good news about Iraq the press won’t print…”
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whig said
It must be the plan, then, they intend to occupy for 40 years and establish a colony. That this is infeasible, is due in one sense to a lack of national will on the part of the American people to sustain such a sacrifice. What they would need is a new Pearl Harbor type thing, and they got it, but it didn’t keep the people from starting to wake up and now they are talking about having another disaster as a good thing.
Were it not for the bloggers, Charles… Do you think we would have stopped them?
Charles said
We haven’t stopped them, whig. What will stop them is economic collapse.
whig said
No, Charles, they expect and are quite prepared for economic collapse.
Charles said
Maybe they think so, whig. But to maintain that military takes money. Increasing amounts of it.
I don’t think the rest of the world will let them have it, no matter what threats we make.
whig said
Well, the military is nearly wrecked anyhow.
whig said
I think if there were a sufficient popular support for the war, they would be able to commit totalizing efforts you cannot imagine, but there is no such popular support, they aren’t going to get it, and I think we’re part of why. I hope that’s not too arrogant to say.
Charles said
I think we are part of why, but a modest part, whig.
I think that the effective part of the resistance is coming from military families who say, “We have sent our children into every war, but no more.” The result is that the services have had to drastically raise recruiting bonuses and are still able only to recruit people who would not have been qualified to serve five years ago.
Resistance, passive or active, raises costs. But I think all that we bloggers do is to help maintain a trickle of information flowing to counter the torrent of propaganda Americans drown in every day.
whig said
I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree, then, because I think military families stand every bit as willing to serve and protect the country as they ever did. Not in an unjust cause, however.
Charles said
Touche, whig.