The Bush administration is ignoring some unpleasant truths about its occupation of Iraq. US generals and administrators say that the morale of its troops in Iraq is high and that they are fully motivated and determined to get on with the job of bringing order and security to the Iraqi people. A survey however, just done for the military’s own newspaper, the Stars and Stripes, suggests that 49 percent of personnel serving in Iraq were disillusioned and did not plan to re-enlist. Worse, 31 percent believed that there was little or no point in the tasks they were being asked to do in the country.
That is deeply disturbing. It means that they are going to be less and less able to carry out their duties, because around a third of most units is going to be made up of men fed up with the danger and difficulties to which they are exposed. In Vietnam, soldiers became ever more reluctant to expose themselves to the enemy, disobeyed orders and on occasions, when confronted by angry officers, killed them.
Of even greater consequence for the Vietnamese and maybe now also the Iraqis was the rapid growth of a vicious cynicism among the US soldiers. In Vietnam, unable or unwilling to try to tell friend and foe apart among the locals, they treated everyone as a foe. This attitude betrayed those Vietnamese who were working with the US-dominated authorities while giving countless propaganda victories to the men of violence who opposed the US occupation.
It is now clear that if it has planned at all, Washington has misplanned the peace in Iraq. The reason for those miscalculations is common to both Pentagon strategists and the GI patrolling the streets of Baghdad. It is a fundamental ignorance of the world beyond the United States and a deep lack of appreciation of the mores and sensitivities of other societies. This may seem odd from citizens of a country that has drawn its lifeblood from immigrants. Nevertheless, it is there in the frustrated incomprehension of officials who cannot fathom why the violence will not stop and in the angry bemusement of US soldiers who cannot understand why Iraqis regard them with such suspicion.
Neither the administration nor the GI on the streets seem to appreciate that the fires of resentment against the US are being banked up ever higher by Ariel Sharon’s oppression of the Palestinians. For the GIs, Palestine is a separate matter. The Americans are the good guys in Iraq. Why don’t people love them?
Four more US serviceman were killed on Friday and another two on Sunday, bringing the US death toll to 103 since George Bush triumphantly declared an end to hostilities on May 1. It is tragic to think how many more lives will be lost before Americans get the message.
