BRING HOME THE TROOPS

MINNEAPOLIS: There’s only one way the war against Iraq’s nuclear programme could have gone worse: if Bush hadn’t been lying about Saddam Hussein’s nuclear programme. But short of a Manhattan mushroom cloud, it’s hard to imagine a darker scenario than the one we’re in. No WMDs. No Saddam. Millions of new enemies. Billions in new debt. And an estimated 35,000 guerillas exacting a terrible tithe — one dead American soldier for every day we stay where we don’t belong. 

For the cameras, military and Bush Administration officials keep putting a brave face on their folly-turned-quagmire-turned-debacle. Hey, that’s their job. The most recent “bring ‘em on” moment comes courtesy of General Richard Meyers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Meyers assures us that the President of Iraq’s bloodied mug will soon join those of his sons broadcast on Death TV, and that such appearances will reduce attacks on US forces: “If (Saddam) is still alive, it’s just a matter of time. He is so busy saving his own skin, he is having no impact, no impact on the security situation.” A day after Meyers’ rosy prediction, Iraqi resistance fighters bombed an American Humvee in central Baghdad, killing one US soldier and wounding three others. Paul Wolfowitz was certain the Iraqi people, eager for liberation, would throw roses at our troops. Cakewalk city, promised Cheney. Major combat is over, Bush announced at his thumbs-up aircraft carrier photo op. We’ll only need to stay a few months, swore Tommy Franks. We know exactly where the WMDs are, insisted Rumsfeld. We’ve found the WMDs, said Bush. Well, we will find them, they all say, though not often anymore. Every single thing they tell us turns out to be dead wrong.

Now they say things are getting better. Read the paper. Watch the tube. E-mail a soldier stationed in Iraq. Does the occupation of Iraq seem like it’s getting better to you?  We’ve got 148,000 occupation soldiers sweating out summer days hotter than most Americans will ever experience in their lifetime. Facing a minimum two-to-four-year occupation timetable, the Pentagon  won’t say if or when those guys will come home to their relatives, some of whom are so frustrated that they’ve formed the group Military Families Speak Out to demand the return of their loved ones. At the present rate of carnage, an American soldier’s chances of coming home in a bag are one in 400, and nobody knows how many Iraqis are dying. Pundits compare this to Vietnam, but that’s unfair. It took years for LBJ to screw up Vietnam this badly. It’s time to stop throwing good lives after bad. We came for Iraq’s oil, but we’ll never extract crude without seducing Iraqi hearts and minds. That war was lost before we fired the first cruise missiles in March, for a few simple reasons. First, Iraqis spent the ‘90s dodging American bombs and trade sanctions. We never knew their pain; they’ll never forget it. Second, our invasion allowed looters and rapists to take over the cities. Anyone who is short a car or a daughter rightly blames us for their loss. Third, we’ve transformed one of the Arab world’s few semi-modern secular states into an anarchic Third World dump. Iraqis hate us. They trust us to do the wrong thing each and every time.

Central Command has issued a directive to US forces: When a car approaches your checkpoint, fire “warning” shots at its engine. If it doesn’t stop, kill everyone inside. This policy results in a lot of dead, unarmed, Iraqi civilians accustomed to standard roadblock protocol (whereby motorists pull up and present ID to police). Some drivers don’t hear the bullets pinging off their engine blocks; others assume they’re being ambushed by bandits and floor it. Either way, they die. This happens all over the country, yet it never occurs to the geniuses at CentCom to issue new orders. On July 28, US Task Force 20 murdered five innocent Iraqi drivers in Baghdad’s Mansur section in this way. “All of the soldiers shot immediately,” says Abu Hassan, a local store owner. “The people are angry and very upset.” This isn’t going to get better. We’re stupid and mean occupiers, which only makes the Iraqis’ seething resentment over our inability to restore water and electricity worse. More Iraqis will join resistance groups like the Revenge Army and Black Brigades. The attacks will continue, as well as our inept attempts to quell dissent. Iraq will devolve into an Israel/Palestine-style spiral of attack, retaliation, rinse, lather, repeat.

Pro-war or anti-war, most Americans think we’re obligated to stick around until we’ve rebuilt Iraq. Get real! You have only to look at Afghanistan  to see that we’re never going to build schools, skyscrapers and superhighways in Iraq. We will never establish a democratic regime. Sooner or later, after the American public has quit caring and stopped paying attention and gotten sick of losing a soldier a day, we will withdraw. And when—not if—that happens, Iraq won’t be any closer to democracy than it is today. . Why not admit that the invasion was a mistake now, before more people die in a meaningless war? Cut bait and bring home the troops. Sure, the French will mock us; we deserve it. Iraq may become a Shi’ite theocracy, but nothing—except a brand-new president with a new take on foreign policy—can stop that now. Disaster is inevitable. It’s infinitely better to take a few PR lumps in the international community than to keep feeding the fedayeen a fresh-faced youngster every day. Please, Mr Bush: Bring the troops home.