Thatrical Micromilitarism: The Fallujah Dialogs
James Wolcott offers some piquant observations about the nature and limits of American military power revealed by the assualt on Fallujah. What we are seeing is not a military operation, but a diplomatic message paired with domestic political posturing in the form of armed Kabuki theatre. Unfortunately, the extras are all killed by the end of the show, and several of the actors are sacrificed for the performance.Fallujah will not result in tangible military gains, nor any proress toward the 'democratization' of Iraq, nor the 'Iraqification' of the conflict. In fact, just the opposite is likely as all of Iraq seethes with anger over the ham-fisted assault. What we are seeing is a phase of the war morally and strategically equivalent to the high-altitude bombing campaigns, free fire zones and body counts of Vietnam: combat operations cut to fit a political agenda instead of an attainable military objective. If you needed proof that Iraq has become a complete cluster-fuck, you now have it.
posted by Michael Bryan @ 11/12/2004 01:12:00 AM
3 Comments:
"What we are seeing is not a military operation, but a diplomatic message paired with domestic political posturing...""War is a continuation of politics by other means." Karl von Clausewitz. Were you unaware of this?
"Unfortunately, the extras are all killed by the end of the show..."Um, that's the idea. The military is a force that kills people and breaks things until the other side either surrenders or no longer exists. The "extras" being killed are the ones willing, nay EAGER to kill our troops and other Iraqis actively supporting democratization. Killing them is a good thing.
"...and several of the actors are sacrificed for the performance."And that is the unavoidable fact of military action, and one of the reasons why the military option is used sparingly. The first rule of war: Young men die. Correlary: Usually innocents die, too. But in this case, all reasonable efforts (in fact, perhaps more than reasonable ones) were made to ensure that the innocents could get out of the area first.
Genghis Khan we are not. And never were.
As to the result of this (and future) action, I suggest you wait and see. Personally, I was sick and tired of the QUAGMIRE! claims about week #2 of the invasion.
Of Afghanistan.
"This will not happen until the foreign war profiteers are removed and a broad-based, international coalition replaces U.S. leadership in this struggle."Translated: "Until Hell freezes over." The UN - run and occupied by oil profiteers - can't even protect people in Ivory Coast. Who else is there? Or does "broad-based, international coalition" mean "Germany, France, and Russia"? And given the Oil-for-palaces scandal, why should they be considered trustworthy?
So much for the "reality-based" portion of America.
And the Iraqi people would be more convinced if 48% of the American population wasn't telling them that America is only over there so that "foreign war profiteers" can steal "Blood for Oiiiiiiil!"
How about instead of trying to get us to pull out unilaterally and ceding victory to the Islamist murdering bastards, you guys simply work to ensure that we DO help the Iraqis toward democracy?
In other words, stop bitching and pitch in and help?
Help what? Dig the hole deeper? Kill more Iraqis deader? Create yet more insurgents? There isn't a military solution to Iraq any more than there was one to Vietnam. Occupation of disfunctional third-world countries doesn't have a great track record. It took us 20 years to recognize this in Vietnam, hopefully we are now on a steeper learning curve and it will only take one or two more Presidential terms to follow through with what has to be done.
Kerry may have sincerely believed that there was anything approaching military victory available to us in Iraq. I don't. The only victory in Iraq will be on the Iraqi's terms, and by that I don't mean that gang of opportunists around Allawi. The intractable problem is that there is no trust between the Iraqi people and the Bush Administration, so there can be no political settlement. The Iraqis aren't fools, they know this Administration is full of shit and can't be trusted, so the insurgency will never come to the table with Bush. Hence, look for four more years of futile military Kabuki and few thousand more dead American soldiers before we grope our way out of Babylon.
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