The Not-War
Along with his otherwise excellent reporting from Iraq, Michael Totten's still looking for the front lines and set-piece battles:
Update: Michael replies in the comments section.
It really didn’t look or feel like a war. No one in the area gets shot or blown up. For hours I watched American soldiers act as though they were employed by Santa Claus rather than the United States Army.Did someone snip "occupation" from Michael's thesaurus?
Update: Michael replies in the comments section.
posted by The Cunning Realist at Thursday, August 16, 2007
13 Comments:
Maybe he needs to keep looking. That's unless something else of Michael's got snipped.
I'm torn internally by Totten's writing.
And honestly, it seems he is too.
But wow, did you get a load of that comments section?
"Sooooo, when do you boys form up the regiment and charge the Mahdi Army's fortress?"
It is still an incredible beef of mine that no matter what the setting, no matter which media I watch/read/listen to, it is always the "War in Iraq". That has been over and done with since May 2003. The Occupation has eluded many a report about and from Iraq for so long, uttering it now seems only to confuse people.
And if it must go without saying, you really don't win an occupation as much as you leave when the locals A) kick you out B) don't need you to manage their country any more. As in, the Americans, British and Russians won World War II and occupied Germany and Italy up to a point where each country could manage without military intervention. (Argue if you will what the American bases represent in both Germany and Italy, they are far and away not occupying forces there).
So much for semantics.
I'm not looking for front lines. The reason I write sentences like those is because almost every person I know expects me to be constantly dodging bullets and bombs in Iraq.
Michael seems to at least recognize that America is in the middle. Our military has the power and the control. We are trying to play all sides. Give up a bit of power here...take away a bit of power there. It can all blow up in our face at any minute. The Shias do not need to conceed anything to the Americans or Sunnis. The longer they draw this out the better it will be for them, the demographics are on their side. Unlike the Sunnis they don't have the training and experience at running a government and controlling the population. We are their best friends whether they like us our not. We have weakend the Sunnis and have been training and arming the Shias. The longer this goes on the better and easier it will be for the Shias to consolidate power when we leave. There is nothing crazy or insane about Iraqis thinking. The different factions are just all trying to play us. We have put ourselves between a rock and a hard place. We don't want the Shias to have all the power because we don't trust their ties to the Iranians. We went in promoting this democracy nonsense so we can't just put the Sunnis back in charge. We'd rather have the Sunnis in charge because we trust the Saudi Royalty to do our bidding and they at least supply the Sunnis money and arms to combat Iran's influence. Of course it was radical Sunni arabs from Saudi Arabia who attacked us on 9/11 so our government decides to ignore this and promises them 20 billion dollars worth of military equipment. So Israel doesn't get mad we then promise them $30 billion in miliatry equipment. Of course this goes against the peace agreement we negotiated between Eqypt and Israel...so I'm waiting for the day I hear we are promising to supply Egypt with $10 billion dollars in military equipment so we don't piss their rulers off. What did George Washington say about entangling alliances? Does anybody really question whether we are a Republic or an empire?
http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery08062007.html
Currently our leaders are "winning" in the middle east. It is all a benefit to them and a loss to the mass of sheep who follow them. The sheep might think they are being protected. But they are only being exploited. Some day there will be a day of reckoning. The sheep will pay dearly. Most of the predators will have horded their wealth overseas and suffer no consequences. This is the way the world works.
Totten's comments I'm afraid are more or less the product of his being spun all the time. Well meaning, he is. But a gullible fool.
The Leb Land comment re Shia pro-Israel "until Iran barged in" is typical. If you know Leb Land well, you know where he got his spin from (or rather who spun the fine young Totten).
The Shias of Lebanon hailed the Israelis as liberators from the PLO.
The Israelis acted like bulls in a china shop and pissed off the locals. But that in and of itself did not Hezbollah make.
Israelis have never understood, and still don't understand, how Lebanon works or how to behave in or in relation to it. But does anyone seriously believe Hezbollah fired Katyusha rockets at Israel last year because of checkpoints the IDF erected in 1982? It so, please, get a clue.
Ummmm...no Michael. I believe Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel because Israel is still occupying what the Shias consider to be their land. There has been cross border conflicts ever since the end of Israel's occupation...instigated by both sides.
You are correct about the Shias hoping to be rid of the poor retched Palestinians that were living in refugee camps next to them. They were understandably not happy about living next to poverty stricken thieves and beggars. They were hoping the Israelis would get rid of them and then leave. When that didn't happen Israel created a new enemy. Why no Lebanese Shia/Israeli animosity pre 1982? Why animosity after the occupation? Difficult questions to answer honestly and still maintain blind loyalty to the Israeli cause Michael. Israel has been its own worst enemy on more than one occasion. Mossad support of Hamas at its founding (to counteract the popularity of the PLO) is another interesting story. Blind supporters of Israel don't like taxing their brains too much.
And Michael...the we don't understand how these crazy people think has always been a cop out. It has never been very difficult to figure out how these people think. The smarter Israeli, Arab, US, European, Persian, etc. politicians have always understood very well how all the people in that region think. It is a power struggle for land, water, resources, religion, etc. The various politicians use war, peace, aid, weapons, ethnic differences, historical hatreds, and religious differences all in order to try and gain an advantage and manipulate the various populations’ loyalties. The majority of people would be happy to work out some sort of fair peace plan. The politicians (particularly the Israeli ones IMHO) feel there are advantages to be gained by continuing the conflict. Namely in acquiring more land.
The United States plans to offer a $13 billion package for Egypt...I apparantly didn't bother to read the correct article. I missed the fact that Egypt already got its blood money.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070730/ts_nm/mideast_usa_arms_dc
It is so obvious that our once great nation has become what our founders fought against. Public education killed American's distrust of government. We are a nation of blind sheep.
This can't truly have success, I feel this way.
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