Tuesday, October 19, 2004

 
A Caiman In A Coal Mine?

Thanx to Jeff Babbin for his account of the incident mentioned in my preceding post and which I was too lazy to Google. He is probably correct that the Army should prosecute those involved in the mutiny without consideration of what could be called the "root causes," but those causes merit serious examination.
A metaphor better than that of a small yellow bird overcome by methane is that of an efficient predator(of guerilla "fish" swimming in a sea of Sunnis and Shiites)reluctant to move about due to its missuse and placement out of its element. I doubt that there were many, if any, refusals to form convoys prior to the "end of major hostilities." While measures were taken during that time to minimize civilian casualities, they likely had less deleterious effects on morale than those current, and probably more crippling measures now being taken even though(as argued earlier-wish I could easily link to my own stuff)they are *less* justified, given that the enemy has chosen to fight exclusively out of uniform and hide in civilian populations, at least pockets of which are hostile to our existence *anywhere.*
The old Soviet Union was deterred, not by the threat of the West to wage a conventional WWII era war, but by nuclear annihilation. Forces backed by the U.S. in Vietnam and by the Soviets in Afghanistan were defeated because those competing superpowers chose not to wage war on guerillas and civilians in the manner of WWII. But in Iraq, I'll wager(but would be interested in comments to the contrary)that our troops are galled and demoralized by having to survive and fight under restrictions far *greater* than imposed on us in Vietnam. The pinpricks of the precision bombing of Fallujah have not transformed it into anything like the rubble of Hue. The catch and release of United Kingdom guys by Iran did not lead to anything like the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and Teheran and Damascus don't resemble Hanoi after its visitation by B-52s. And if there is anything like "Operation Phoenix" in Iraq, we have yet to hear of it.(The abuses and uses of prisoners at Abu Ghraib pale in significance to that program which arguably decimated the Vietcong(although, not of course, the NVA))
The arguments against using the tactics employed in Vietnam(where morale *was* a problem, particularly during the later years of the conflict)run along the lines that they would turn "inflame" or "turn against us" many, if not most, Iraqis. Those arguments *are* probaby valid, insofar and unfortunately, because not enough Iraqis, however many of them would like to enjoy the creature comforts of some sort of freedom, democracy, and prosperity, are willing to risk their lives fighting those who will make war on us regardless of our presence or absence in Iraq. As argued earlier, we did not occupy Germany so that its citizens were then free to elect another Hitler. If Bush has made the error of placing too much faith in the courage and goodwill of Iraqis, the remedy is not to accept defeat(or apologize -kudos, btw., and frankly, white-hot envy to Douglas Kern linked by the Corner today) but to, if necessary, grant Iraqi Muslims the status accorded to ethnic germans after WWII in what was Prussia and the Sudetenland: nada -bupkiss- buh-bye.
We survived the overruning of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam by messianic communism, although the scope of the "Cold" War was far greater than encompassed by those third world nations. We can survive the "loss" of Iraq to one form or another of Islamofascism, and a victory for us there would still leave us with formidable enemies. -gotta pick up one of the kids...