Iraq Does Not Exist

As a nation, Iraq doesn’t exist. No one identifies himself as an Iraqi. They are Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds or whatever tribal name they identify with. At its height of power, Great Britain sliced up the Middle East from the ancient countries to suit their power needs with little regard to the ethnic populations involved. Strong rulers kept Iraq together through fear, assassinations and mass imprisonment. A minority ethnic group, the Sunnis, kept the Shiites and Kurds in check by force. When the Bush administration decided, as part of the Plan For a New American Century, to bring “Democracy’ to Iraq, they did so while completely ignoring the long political and ethnic history of the area. Or, if they did considered the cultural situation, they did nothing to deal with it. When one Bush Cabinet member mentioned a potential problem between Shiites and Sunnis, Bush is reported to have replied, “I thought they were all Muslims.”

Under Sadaam Hussein, although the vast majority of Iraq citizens were Muslims, Iraq was not an Islamic state. Hussein wanted no part of the power of the medieval Imams and Ayatollahs. Most citizens were Muslims and generally observed Muslim customs and traditions. In rural Iraq more of the old customs and traditions, often tribal rather than Islamic, were still observed, but in the urban areas many of the old customs were ignored - liquor was available, women were educated, and were freer with regard to dress and conduct.

Despite the large number of Iraqi-American citizens in the United States, it is obvious that the movers and shakers who planned this war did not deem it important enough to confer with them on how to win the cooperation of the Iraqi people after the fall of Hussein. In their hubris, they apparently assumed that the natives would all be so grateful that they would immediately adopt American customs. Cheney maintained that the Iraqis would “greet us with flowers”, as liberators, and Wolfowitz opined that other countries would be eager to join us after Hussein fell.

In their folly, the neo-cons enlisted the aid of Iraqi "Refugees" most of whom had been living outside of Iraq since Sadaam came to power, and all of whom had a personal axe to grind. The Chalabi experience is a case in point.

The neo-cons who planned (or didn’t plan) and are (mis)managing the Iraqi war are all ideologues. The plan for the war was originally hatched at the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey. Of all the U.S. institutions, none is more conservative than this school. (Consider, for example, that the black scarf worn by American sailors is in mourning for Admiral Nelson, the BRITISH naval hero.)

Ideologues consider themselves a superior lot. Proud to be "thinkers", they have no respect whatever for the mere “doers”, and consider senior military officers with years of experience “the hewers of wood and the carriers of water.” Witness, for example, the case of General Eric Shinseki. There has probably never been a more qualified Army Chief of Staff. A graduate of the Military Academy, he held command positions at every level from platoon leader to Chief of Staff of the Army. Two tours in Vietnam, two Purple Heart medals, three Bronze Stars – he is a soldier thoroughly acquainted with ground combat. When asked his opinion prior to our invasion of Iraq, he replied, “We will need a minimum of 300,000 troops.” General Shinseki was summarily asked to retire.

The great tragedy of this war is that ideologues - thesebrainy people with grandiloquent ideas and no practical experience -have been allowed to conduct the war effort. Now that the war has reduced itself to chaos, most of the ideologues have disappeared. Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, the foremost neo-con hawks, are gone. There never was a “Plan B”, so the men and women of the U.S. Army are now left to flounder in this chaotic mess from which there is no feasible exit.

The sorriest part of this sad tale is we have not learned a thing. After four years of war, Humvee reconnaissance vehicles, tricked out as combat vehicles, still travel the “IED” highway to be blown to bits every day while state-of-art Stryker vehicles are stored in Kuwait.

Here’s the situation in a snapshot : A National Guard Sergeant is now suing the Army to protest an assignment for a fifth tour in Iraq. This war has now lasted longer than WW II. Then we conquered Europe and Asia - and this Army can’t get out of Bagdad.