Five Years On
Reuters: Bearing Witness
Through half a decade of war, a team of 100 Reuters correspondents, photographers, cameramen and support staff have strived to bring the world news from the most dangerous country for the press.
By way of a warning, no punches are pulled. Those with delicate sensibilities should think twice about watching this.
via MeFi
Through half a decade of war, a team of 100 Reuters correspondents, photographers, cameramen and support staff have strived to bring the world news from the most dangerous country for the press.
By way of a warning, no punches are pulled. Those with delicate sensibilities should think twice about watching this.
via MeFi
As far as simple opinions, what I took away from the Reuters piece is a reminder that, regardless of necessity or justification, war is neither glorious or romantic, and occupation of conquered territory even less so. Simple enough, I suppose.
Putting Iraq in a larger context is where it gets complicated. We asked for and received a UN resolution allowing us to legally invade Iraq. It is now clear that the evidence supporting our call for this resolution was dubious at best. If you take away this shaky evidence, I do not believe we had a sufficent casus belli for our invasion of Iraq. Regardless, our invasion went forward and we systematically dismantled the vast majority of the Iraqi civilian and military government in short order. The chaos that should have been easily predictable ensued soon afterwards.
Finding ourselves in this position, we're stuck with it. We must prepare for a long haul rehabilitation, a la Japan. First and foremost because it is the right thing to do. Secondly, and almost as important, because of the amount of blood and treasure we've already spilled into the sands of Iraq. This will, of necessity, require forces stationed in Iraq for the foreseeable future.
We currently have nearly 60,000 men and women stationed in Japan, more than 60 years after the end of the war. We currently have around 150,000 men and women stationed in Iraq. I think we can expect to need forces in Iraq equivalent to those in Japan more or less indefinitely.
I think the reality is we must recruit more soldiers if we are going to make it work in Iraq. We can't sacrifice our ability to respond elsewhere to occupy Iraq. This includes at home when the state national guard units are needed for other duties. I imagine the generals at the Pentagon wish they had the divisions that were cut as part of the "peace dividend" back right now.
Still and all, I am convinced that we can make it work in Iraq. People will say the Iraqis will never respect us or forgive us because of Fallujah or Abu Ghraib. I would remind them that we decimated an entire generation of Japanese and completely wiped two of their cities from the face of the Earth using atomic weapons. They are now one of our staunchest allies.
If there is anything the Iraqis should never forgive us for, it's the cack-handed bungling of Paul Bremer, et al. It will take a long time to convince the Iraqi people that we're not there to conquer or colonize them. We have to extend the hand of friendship like we did in Japan. We have to stop taking the US taxpayer's money and then not doing the things that need to be done to rebuild infrastructure in Iraq. We have to eject KBR and Halliburton and Blackwater from the gravy train and get real about our moral obligations to the people of Iraq.
On the other hand, the Iraqis may tell us to just get out. That will make things really complicated.
Post Scriptum: Speaking of Mr. Bremer, I meant to post about the Frontline documentary Bush's War, but got distracted and didn't. This is an excellent program which spells out in excruciating detail the strategic blunders committed by our civilian leadership at every step.
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