Volume II. No. 46
 05-06-04
Alone In Iraq
 author: Vance Cureton
 © Copyright 2004
 

 "Told you so."

 Those are words all of us since our childhood years have hated to hear. Nobody 
 likes to be tormented with the those three words. "Told  you so."  For that old
 childhood taunt speaks of failure. And of a lack of insight, perspective, and knowledge.

 The target of the taunt is thus labeled as clueless and hoplessly befuddled.

 Iraq certainly is not the village schoolyard. But Iraq has definitely become a "told 
 you so" situation. -- Let's be perfectly clear. The unmitigated disaster that the current 
 occupant of the White House has gotten the United States into over there is doing 
 damage to the international reputation of this country that will haunt our grandchildren's 
 grandchildren. The world now has an indelible image imprinted upon its collective 
 memory of an American monster that will take whole generations to erase.

 Dirty, unclothed prisoners piled in a disgusting pyramid of flesh. A hooded man 
 standing fearfully on a carton with electrical wires attached to his fingers. A 
 smirking female soldier giving the thumbs-up signal as she points contemptously 
 at the genitalia of some anonymous Iraqi inmate. Another female soldier stands 
 without apparent shame as she casually holds a leash that is tied around the neck 
 of a prone inmate. -- This is the brutal image of America that has been transmitted 
around the world. And the pictures do not lie. Our beloved country has become 
 the very thing that we have so long denounced in others. ---  Immoral. Arrogant. 
 Cynical. Brutal.

 We are the new colonial powers in Iraq. And those pictures - that do not 
 lie - prove it.

 This nightmare of inepitude stems from the isolationist political agenda of the
 current administration, where the methods will in the end be justified by the results.
 We must - like some reluctant giant - hammer away at the tiny ants who dare oppose
 us, as we know best. In other words, we do what we want because we are the good
 guys. { just ask! }  We deny "enemy combatants" at Guantanomo Bay access to 
 legal counsel. We pass laws awarding the goverment the power to probe into
 the private lives of its own citizens { to an extent never seen before in our history } 
 and to harass American citizens of certain ethnic backgrounds. All because we are 
 fighting a war against global terrorism.

 Yet, the stark reality is that there is no true coalition in Iraq. All military personnel
 in Iraq who wear uniforms other than an American one, are looked upon as serving 
 the purposes of the United States. Besides the British, the numbers of soldiers from 
 other countries is miniscule. Those were American soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison 
 utilizing techniques of abuse and humiliation that would do any Nazi proud. -- The 
 pictures do not lie.

 And who will be held accountable? Will General Janis Karpinski who was allegedly
 in command of Abu Ghraib get more than the gentle rebuke that she has already 
 received. Will Donald Rumsfeld publicly denounce the failings of those beneath 
 him who have allowed this travesty to happen. Will he himself absorb the full brunt
 of responsibility and resign?

 Iraq is a quagmire. Don't ask George Bush, because he never reads the newspapers. 
 Just recount the numerous American dead, and try not to ignore the fact that insurgents 
 still hold large swaths of territory in several Iraqi cities. Neighborhoods that American 
 soldiers dare not enter casually.

 June 30th won't be the end of the beginning, but the beginning of the end. Iraq 
 is a nightmare on steroids.  And we have no one else to blame.

 "Told you so."
 

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