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10 things I learned from Iraq

- No matter how much we wish to think that war strategy can be discussed in ‘silver bullet’ terms of things such as aircraft carriers, submarines, bombers, fighters, missiles and stealth technology, warfare is still largely about one man holding a rifle and standing on a piece of land, and refusing to be moved off of that land by other men with rifles. Warfare in the last 2000 years can still be distilled down to squads of men moving across terrain behind some form of personal shield. In the age of Achilles, it was done with brass plates over leather, today its done with Kevlar body armor.

- While it was always tempting to try to fit Iraq into the metaphor provided by other wars, such as WWII or Vietnam, it turns out that Iraq was neither of those things and thus has generally escaped definition. It has now been raised to be its own metaphor. In the future, people will not refer to a war where the public is divided and the goals shift almost daily as ‘another Vietnam”, but will instead bring out horrible possibility of “another Iraq”.

- We in the west talk endlessly about the benefits of freedom and democracy in a 'progressive civilization', but we are often too busy enjoying the benefits of those things to see how essential it is to the life of those to whom it has been denied. Sally Strothers cries her eyes out for you to send food to the worlds poor, but little hadji is going to have to grow up in a charnel house because it would be wrong to “impose our cultural values” on him. A crate of velveeta covered macaroni or a Madonna DVD is almost never thought of as “imposing our cultural values” but seeing that people are not executed for speaking their mind is.

- To many people, Abu-Ghirab and Guantanamo now outweigh the 9/11 attacks in terms of how they see our role in the world.

- While I thought that Afghanistan would be very hard and would take at least 10 years to make even the most basic level of military progress, that it would never be invaded successfully and would resist to the last man, I thought Iraq would be the “easier” of the two.

- For the record, I expected that the Iraq invasion would take almost 7,000 US military lives and would take 6 months for us to make it to what was left of a “scorched earth” Baghdad. I expected the bridges to be blown at every opportunity, cities and towns to be scorched (by the Iraqis) and a refugee crisis of huge proportions that would slow our progress. After that was over, I expected that the Occupation would take 10 years before the first elections would occur.

- The same group who screamed the loudest to “end the sanctions” in the 1990’s are the same people who cried the most when Saddam was executed in 2006.

- Now that America is in Iraq, the world cares deeply of the loss of quality of life of the Iraqi people. When Saddam was in charge, the world couldn’t possibly have cared less.

- The justification for going into Bosnia was the fact that Bosnia was in a full blown sectarian civil war and that we needed to stop it. The justification for leaving Iraq is that it is a full blown sectarian civil war and that we dont need to stop it. Makes me wonder what the Bosnians had that the Iraqis dont. Oh yeah, were still in Bosnia by the way...

- Public support for the “War on Terror” came into existence at 5:30pm EST September 11th, 2001. It peaked on January 12th, 2002 and it ended on May 3rd 2003. In 2004, the dials on the “Cultural Time Machine” began to slowly roll backwards and by 2006, the display on the chronometer had gone all the way back to 1968. Welcome to the past ladies and gentleman, I cant wait to see how it all plays out this time.

Posted @ January 18, 2007 12:33 AM | Current Affairs

Comments

I recall that in the run up to Iraq, I never did buy into the WMD argument. I figured if that were the case, we'd need to invade a half a dozen other countries in the region to keep WMD out of the hands of terrorists. On the other hand, Saddam was up to his eyeballs in terrorism or various sorts, ignoring sanctions, and shooting at our aircraft. The most convincing case to me was that Saddam needed to be dealt with in a long term fashion.

I'm also a big believer in democratization. If Iraq could be made a bit freer, a bit more prosperous, then other arabs would wonder, why not us too. I believe that democracies produce fewer terrorists than tyrannies, and the one they do produce tend to stay home,since they believe they can affect the course of government.

I figured the army vs army war would take maybe a month, with less than a 100 casualties on our side, and fewer than 1000 civilian casualties on their side. I think that had mostly proved out by the time of the "mission accomplished" banner. Democratizing though, would be th work of a generation. Iraqis need to grow up having elections and democratic institutions having always been there. By my lights, that's about thirty years. I most underestimated US impatience with the long hard slog.

Posted by: RPD at January 18, 2007 02:15 PM

now look what youve done, i started to respond to your comment, and now i realize i have to make a post.

Posted by: frank martin at January 18, 2007 02:35 PM

Excellent blog. The comparison/contrast with Bosnia was especially cogent. I've not seen it expressed this way elsewhere. Congratulations, cogency is a rare talent.

Posted by: Fred Beloit at January 19, 2007 06:41 AM

Makes me wonder what the Bosnians had that the Iraqis don't.

You mean, besides white skin?

Posted by: Kelly at January 19, 2007 10:11 PM

damn. why that would mean the democrats are somewhat racist in their feelings towards the iraqis. well that just cant be. Why, if that were true, it would throw everything we understand to be true in the known universe into the air, even cause us to perhaps re-examine the foundations of our politics.

Nahhhh. Its easier to just say "Its bushs fault" and run home and hide behind the sofa and hope the nasty terrorists cant find us anymore.

Posted by: frank martin at January 19, 2007 10:23 PM

> Makes me wonder what the Bosnians had that the Iraqis don't.

> You mean, besides white skin?

Well, that, or rather, Euro heritage (Don't see a lot of concern for Venezuelans, do you?)... and a Democrat president in office.

Don't forget that last part. That's just as important.

Posted by: Vootie at January 20, 2007 05:14 PM