What are we doing over there?

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This entry was published at least two years ago (originally posted on July 16, 2003). Since that time the information may have become outdated or my beliefs may have changed (in general, assume a more open and liberal current viewpoint). A fuller disclaimer is available.

I know that, despite Bush’s insistence that the war ended weeks ago, we’re still in a combat situation in Iraq (at least, that’s how I’m interpreting our one-soldier-killed-per-day average). I’m sure that in such a situation, not everything is going to be sunshine and roses. But even so — what the hell?

NEVER again did families in Baghdad imagine that they need fear the midnight knock at the door.

But in recent weeks there have been increasing reports of Iraqi men, women and even children being dragged from their homes at night by American patrols, or snatched off the streets and taken, hooded and manacled, to prison camps around the capital.

Children as young as 11 are claimed to be among those locked up for 24 hours a day in rooms with no light, or held in overcrowded tents in temperatures approaching 50C (122F).

[…]

Mr Akhjan, whose 58-year-old father was arrested three weeks ago for driving a truck with no doors or headlights, said: “People are so sickened by what is happening they talk of wanting Saddam to come back. How bad can the Americans be that in three months we want that monster back?”

Things are looking worse and worse over there, and we’re not helping the matter by behaving like this. If this keeps up, we’re just going to keep ticking the Iraqi people off, we’re going to continue ticking the rest of the world off, and the long-term repercussions are not going to be good.

(via Tresy)

1 thought on “What are we doing over there?”

  1. When the air war in Viet Nam ended in January of 1973, my family would write and ask me what I was doing now that the war was over. The answer – flying combat missions. The air war in Laos did not end until April and the air war in Cambodia did not end until August.

    The “war” [or police action, or whatever] is not over, and will not be over for a long time. Bush is engaging in what he, in his campaign promises, said he would not do, “nation building.”

    Toward the end of the Viet Nam War, we who were “in the trenches” got pretty cynical. Here is an adaption of a joke of the time, updated for the present situation:

    How to end the war in Iraq:

    1. Take all the people in Iraq we know are friendly to the US, and put them on boats in the Persian Gulf.

    2. Take in nuclear weapons and level everything and everyone else in Iraq.

    3. Sink the boats.

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