Friday, February 20, 2004
Wars: Past, Present and Future
The ongoing struggle in Iraq continues to draw parallels with Vietnam, much to the chagrin of TeamBush hawks.
A far more troubling analogy was drawn by Newsday's James Pinkerton, to whom the pattern of Iraqi car bombings and overly optimistic reports of impending government success recalls nothing so much as Terry Gilliam's 1985 classic film Brazil. Routine terror bombings by an unseen and apparently doggedly unstoppable group of insurgents is, however, only a surreal back story to this film. As Pinkerton notes, "(T)he film's focus isn't on violence. Instead, its target is lying in high places. One government official, appearing on a TV news show, blames a "ruthless minority" for the bombings and predicts quick victory over terrorism. "But it's been 13 years," the interviewer protests. To which the official replies, dismissively, "Beginner's luck!"
More troubling, he observes,"'Brazil'-like levels of implausibility-in-the-face-of-reality are visible at the Coalition Provisional Authority, the hub of American operations in Iraq. In that bureaucratic bubble in the middle of chaotic Baghdad, it's seemingly easy to make the real yield to the unreal."
The inherent difficulty of running a counter-insurgency program, especially in a foreign country, is that one always has to alternate between carrot and stick--and the questions of how, when, where, and with what intensity to apply either are rarely clear cut. This is just what gives such situations their surreal quality.
A few examples. Pinkerton notes:
"Of course, the Americans insist that we are winning the "hearts and minds" of most Iraqis.
Yet we might consider these details about last week's car bombing of a police station in Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad, as reported by the Washington Post's Ariana Eunjung Cha: "After the explosion, U.S. troops trying to secure the area clashed with angry Iraqis who contended that the explosion was caused by a missile fired by a U.S. warplane. Witnesses said the troops fired into the crowd, hitting civilians." One Iraqi subsequently died."
Winning hearts and minds is a term and idea straight outta Vietnam, and one which finds itself again expressed by US Marine General Michael Hagee discussing the 25,000 Marines being rotated into the Iraqi Sunni Triangle area to the immense relief of the now-exhausted Army 82nd Airborne.
Hagee apparently sees little contradiction in his mission. He notes, "They (the enemy) know that the most lethal, dangerous weapons system on any battlefield is the United States Marine armed--and that is one of the things that we will bring." Later he includes, "Establish that relationship--'hearts and minds' was the term used in Vietnam. I think that's still accurate ... where the people will come to you and say 'Hey, the bad guy is around the corner here and I want to show you where he is."
While Hagee claims that that is starting to happen in Iraq (and I hope he's right for the sake of his Marines), he ignores one point. It ultimately did not work in Vietnam. When faced with the prospect of killing damn near every man, woman, and child in the South if we were going achieve our objectives, we began to pull out.
One last Vietnam link. This one surprisingly an article where Donald Rumsfeld speaks truth to power. Or at least did, back in 1966. Seems Rummy was very upset about the no-bid contracts that Halliburton forerunners Kellogg, Brown and Root were getting to rebuild South Vietnam. But back then it was LBJ's cronies making all the loot from war profiteering and not W's.
What a difference 35 years makes.
The ongoing struggle in Iraq continues to draw parallels with Vietnam, much to the chagrin of TeamBush hawks.
A far more troubling analogy was drawn by Newsday's James Pinkerton, to whom the pattern of Iraqi car bombings and overly optimistic reports of impending government success recalls nothing so much as Terry Gilliam's 1985 classic film Brazil. Routine terror bombings by an unseen and apparently doggedly unstoppable group of insurgents is, however, only a surreal back story to this film. As Pinkerton notes, "(T)he film's focus isn't on violence. Instead, its target is lying in high places. One government official, appearing on a TV news show, blames a "ruthless minority" for the bombings and predicts quick victory over terrorism. "But it's been 13 years," the interviewer protests. To which the official replies, dismissively, "Beginner's luck!"
More troubling, he observes,"'Brazil'-like levels of implausibility-in-the-face-of-reality are visible at the Coalition Provisional Authority, the hub of American operations in Iraq. In that bureaucratic bubble in the middle of chaotic Baghdad, it's seemingly easy to make the real yield to the unreal."
The inherent difficulty of running a counter-insurgency program, especially in a foreign country, is that one always has to alternate between carrot and stick--and the questions of how, when, where, and with what intensity to apply either are rarely clear cut. This is just what gives such situations their surreal quality.
A few examples. Pinkerton notes:
"Of course, the Americans insist that we are winning the "hearts and minds" of most Iraqis.
Yet we might consider these details about last week's car bombing of a police station in Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad, as reported by the Washington Post's Ariana Eunjung Cha: "After the explosion, U.S. troops trying to secure the area clashed with angry Iraqis who contended that the explosion was caused by a missile fired by a U.S. warplane. Witnesses said the troops fired into the crowd, hitting civilians." One Iraqi subsequently died."
Winning hearts and minds is a term and idea straight outta Vietnam, and one which finds itself again expressed by US Marine General Michael Hagee discussing the 25,000 Marines being rotated into the Iraqi Sunni Triangle area to the immense relief of the now-exhausted Army 82nd Airborne.
Hagee apparently sees little contradiction in his mission. He notes, "They (the enemy) know that the most lethal, dangerous weapons system on any battlefield is the United States Marine armed--and that is one of the things that we will bring." Later he includes, "Establish that relationship--'hearts and minds' was the term used in Vietnam. I think that's still accurate ... where the people will come to you and say 'Hey, the bad guy is around the corner here and I want to show you where he is."
While Hagee claims that that is starting to happen in Iraq (and I hope he's right for the sake of his Marines), he ignores one point. It ultimately did not work in Vietnam. When faced with the prospect of killing damn near every man, woman, and child in the South if we were going achieve our objectives, we began to pull out.
One last Vietnam link. This one surprisingly an article where Donald Rumsfeld speaks truth to power. Or at least did, back in 1966. Seems Rummy was very upset about the no-bid contracts that Halliburton forerunners Kellogg, Brown and Root were getting to rebuild South Vietnam. But back then it was LBJ's cronies making all the loot from war profiteering and not W's.
What a difference 35 years makes.
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