Iraq resembles Vietnam
I follow the worsening situation in Iraq daily, and it’s beginning to resemble Vietnam. Our military is fighting a guerrilla war that cannot simply be won with force. The so-called sensitive areas the insurgents use to attack our forces are creating restrictions just like in Vietnam, where the U.S. military was prohibited from invading North Vietnam by ground for fear that Russia or China would get involved. The port in Haipong, North Vietnam, couldn’t be mined because Soviet ships that were supplying the North Vietnamese could have been damaged. There were South Vietnamese known as Viet Cong who supported the communist North. They would pretend to be the pro-American South Vietnamese and launch ambushes and conduct terrorist attacks.
In Iraq, U.S. forces, especially those stationed near Najaf, are not permitted to launch a full-out offensive against the insurgents who are holed up in mosques and schools, which they use as fortresses and storage depots to stockpile their weapons and ammunition. To do so would anger Iraqis, just like invading North Vietnam by ground would have prompted the Soviets or Chinese to get involved. We’re seeing that many of our soldiers are restricted from even defending themselves for fear of damaging holy sites that insurgents are using to fire mortars and rocket-propelled grenades because that would promote anger among Iraqis and cause the uprising to be more widespread. Insurgents use ambulances as personnel carriers, but we can’t fire at them because we’d be the bad guys and it would anger Iraqis.
Why haven’t we learned our lesson from Vietnam? I thought that post-Vietnam administrations vowed never to fight a limited war again. But Iraq is definitely such a case because of the many restrictions imposed on our troops. Why are we in Iraq when the majority of the Iraqi people don’t like Americans? Just look at all the kidnappings, uprisings, protests and constant terrorist acts that our troops — the same troops who toppled Saddam Hussein — have to constantly endure. It’s true that many of these terrorist acts are al-Qaida related, but most of them are the work of the very Iraqis we liberated. There’s gratitude for you. The signs are there, and the situation is only going to get worse if the restrictions imposed on our troops remain.
If we’re fighting a war on terror, then why are we breaking the most obvious rule in warfare, the one that says never split your forces in half and fight on two fronts — Afghanistan and Iraq? Don’t get me wrong. Our troops are doing an amazing job within their limitations. But we should never have gone into Iraq in the first place. We should have concentrated our efforts in Afghanistan. At least when Saddam was in power he denied the use of Iraq as an al-Qaida battlefield.
I find it extremely strange that President Bush still has so much support considering that he’s responsible for sending more than 750 soldiers to their deaths for a war without a cause. And that’s not to mention having tainted America’s reputation in the world, as well as standing to lose Afghanistan as a valuable ally in the hunt for al-Qaida.
Gregory A. Palermo
Ramstein Air Base, Germany
Distortion and deception
Recently Stars and Stripes published a “Doonesbury” cartoon depicting a character talking to a Bush administration official. The character referred to going down the rabbit hole a la “Alice in Wonderland.” Current events only serve to reinforce the sense of unreality that appears on a regular basis in the news.
On April 30 Stars and Stripes published pictures of dead Iraqi children on page one and page four. As I understand the policy, news organizations are forbidden by the Department of Defense to show photos of flag-draped coffins of U.S. servicemembers killed in Iraq, partly out of respect for the deceased soldiers and their families. I guess dead Iraqi children aren’t deserving of the same respect because they’re the enemy. Well, children of the enemy anyway. Maybe. Needless to say, the real reason for the photo ban of American coffins is to avoid any reminder that our folks die in wars, too. If people were reminded of this too often, they might not like it.
Further down the rabbit hole, in the same issue of Stripes we encountered the story “Eight 1st AD soldiers killed near Baghdad.” In it, a public affairs officer said it would be a disservice to the eight recently-deceased 1st AD soldiers and their families to infer that the soldiers wouldn’t have been killed had their deployment not been extended. I believe the real disservice to the soldiers and their families is that the soldiers are dead. There is no inference here. The soldiers are dead because their Iraq tour was extended.
The distortion and deception goes on and on. We invaded Iraq because it had weapons of mass destruction. No. We invaded Iraq because it might have had weapons or Saddam Hussein was thinking about having them. Wait. We invaded Iraq because Saddam was hand-in-hand with al-Qaida. No folks. We really invaded Iraq because Iraqis are freedom-loving people, and they had a really bad man running their country. Of course Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was a four-star general during the first Iraq war, claimed we didn’t invade Baghdad at that time because of his fear that if we removed Saddam from power, Iraq would be plunged into chaos. Old, repressed hatreds would re-emerge, and religious and political fighting would result. I guess Sec. Powell was right the first time.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld swept into the Pentagon in 2001 with grand ideas of downsizing, resizing, rightsizing, or something sizing our military. In the midst of the destruction of the armed forces as we knew them, the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks happened. Suddenly, the military had a lot of work to do. Not to worry, said the Potomac pundits. We have lots of National Guard and Reserve forces to fill the gaps, just like we planned. Besides, President Bush declared that major combat was over a year ago. So all we need to do now is mop up a little light resistance. Curiouser and curiouser, said Alice.
Our soldiers in Iraq — active duty, reserve and National Guard — are performing magnificently. They are simply following orders and doing a fine job in a dangerous and politically uncertain area. Our servicemembers are carrying out their duties with the same courage, bravery and dedication to duty that American soldiers have done for the last 200 or so years. And as usual, they are doing it quietly and professionally.
Somebody once commented toward the end of the Vietnam War: How would you like to be the last man to die for a mistake? I believe the situation in Iraq is rapidly approaching that point.
Ed Lada
Heidelberg, Germany
Scandal embarrassing
This is regarding the story “Geneva Conventions never taught to 6 accused GIs” (May 2). What occurred at the Abu Ghraib prison with Iraqi prisoners has irrevocably embarrassed our Army and our nation, and has severely damaged our strategic level information campaign in the war on terrorism. The blatant abuse of prisoners clearly violated rudimentary common task level training regarding the handling of prisoners. But more importantly, the conduct violated any norm of human decency that could be associated with American values.
The lack of judgment to perform such abuse was compounded even further by the inherent stupidity of creating photographic evidence. There is no excuse regarding a lack of more “in-depth training,” and any suggestion of such reasoning further derides the reputation of the armed forces as an institution. These folks need to do some serious time.
Maj. Scott Morrison
Boblingen, Germany
Abuse of prisoners
It now seems as though it has really happened. This is a genuinely revolting development. I read that reprimands have been given out and investigations continue concerning the abuse of prisoners in Iraq. Reprimands! What a dishonor to our Army and nation.
Reprimands are probably suggested in the Uniform Code of Military Justice for walking on the grass or forgetting to put fuel in one’s Army tank or truck. But not for torture! All soldiers have to deploy with a “Geneva Convention card.” If not, there are falsified records that they did. This card does not come close to allowing torture, humiliation or deprivation. It’s just the opposite.
Capt. James J. Yee, the Army Islamic chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was put in confinement while being investigated. Yet in the Iraqi abuse case, I read that only “several have received reprimands” and the female general in charge went home. Nowhere have I read or heard anything about the source of the pictures. Did the participants themselves take them and give them out? Are they fakes, as the pictures in the case of British troops are being called? Are any of the American faces in the pictures in confinement now?
Straightforward Army procedure would strongly suggest that everyone even remotely involved, down to those merely having suspicions and taking no action, should have their liberty constrained pending completion of all the investigations, including those from the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency suspected of being involved. And those deemed to have committed criminal acts punishable under the UCMJ should be referred to the most severe “court” appropriate. “Reprimands” are a very unlikely outcome of this proper process.
I have also heard and read that Iraqi leaders have demanded that Iraqi legal officials be included in these investigations. That seems quite proper, too. Who knows, some of the suspects might even be turned over to them for justice!
I’m just sickened by this situation. How do the decent soldiers over there feel about this betrayal of trust that they placed in others? How do they and their families feel when their mission, efforts and sacrifices have been jeopardized by this revolting development? And why have none of the reports so far in Stars and Stripes been by Stripes reporters? Aren’t there any in Iraq?
Robert D. Doleman
Landstuhl, Germany
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=22104
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