To be human
Tuesday, 8 April 2008 | 56 readers so far
I spend a lot of time bitching on this blog. I don’t really regret it, because I’m generally bitching for a reason - I hope to find others out there in the big bad world who feel similar to the way I feel, or who might change their minds and come around to my way of thinking on issues that matter.
As a former participant in the occupation of Iraq, I have very mixed feelings on that particular political morass. I think we have noble intentions and are generally doing things the hardest and most expensive way possible over there. Perhaps that is the only way to go about waging a war that really intends to change a culture. I’m not an expert, just a guy who went and came back.
The war in Iraq is so muddled and mischarecterized. Sometimes, even the people waging it have no idea what they are doing, where they are going and why they have to be there. It’s easy to lose your humanity in an environment where every moment might be your last moment.
That is why I am also touched to read stories like this one:
Ammar Haddad Muhammad, a 5-year-old Iraqi boy, and his father landed on time Saturday night in Charleston, S.C., to begin the process of getting life-saving surgery thanks to help from a Gainesville Marine.
There are certain things that I hold dear and honor when I see them. War can make us so tired. It certainly did in my case. Marine Major Kevin Jarrard, no matter his other human qualities, should be held up as an example of the kind of men we need when we wage war. In the midst of strife and conflict, he has twice reached out to remind Iraqis that they are just as human as we are and that we value their lives because we value all human life on general principle.
1 April 8th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Gringo_Malo says:
One does not win a war by emphasizing the enemy’s humanity. The last time the U.S. won a clear cut victory, sixty-odd years ago, our propaganda dehumanized our enemies. Nobody really minded when our air forces nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or started firestorms that suffocated tens of thousands in Dresden, Hamburg, and Tokyo. We’re losing the Iraqi war, and this sort of foolishness is the reason we’re losing. The great irony is that we could easily conquer the entire Arabian Peninsula, and secure its oil reserves, if only we were prepared to do what’s necessary to that end. Instead, we toss our own soldiers and marines into prison for killing the wrong Iraqi. The people running this clusterfuck are not sufficiently intelligent to be human.
2 April 8th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Trevor says:
I don’t think we’re losing because we gave an Iraqi boy free surgery. I’m not even sure we are losing. I think we’re paying way too much and being way too restrained.
I think politically speaking, that is probably necessary for the survival of the leadership. We could easily conquer the Arabian Peninsula if we had the willpower but we don’t. The American people are not willing to tolerate the level of bloodshed that would require.
I’m sort of glad of that. As much as I despise fundamentalism in the practice of Islam (or any other religion), I don’t want to wipe out entire populations.
3 April 9th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Gringo_Malo says:
I agree that we’re paying too much, and the enemy knows it. So they’ll outlast us. So we’re bound to lose eventually. We are losing. If we wanted to win, then we’d need to make the enemy’s costs higher than ours. If we lack the will to do that, then we should cut our losses and get out now.
I admit that the new touchy-feely kind of war is beyond my ken. What’s the point of conquest if we can’t act like conquerors? (Conquerors don’t give away free stuff, they take stuff from the conquered.) Why bother to fight a war for someone else’s interests? Why can’t we have a war aim in our own interests, for example, capturing the Iraqi oil reserves?
4 April 9th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Trevor says:
Well, I think we are fighting the war in our interests. Pretending otherwise is foolish. We do need the oil. That is a major reason we are interested in the region. Pretending otherwise is foolish. Saddam, if given the opportunity, would have destroyed the United States. Pretending otherwise is foolish.