Americans Look Ugly
Not Only To Iraqis
By Zvi
Bar'el
Ha'aretz Daily
8-18-03
- ANKARA -- Almost four
months have passed since the conclusion of the "big" battles in Iraq,
and the start of small, exhausting skirmishes. What appeared at first to
be a tremendous show of American and British might, a conclusive blow
which toppled Saddam Hussein's regime, is liable to become a foray into
a lethal beehive, which waited for its prey to come. There is a
constellation of powerful forces in Iraq: Shi'ites, Sunnis, Kurds,
Christians, Turkmen, and various other tribal, religious and secular
leaders, who all want a piece of the country, present and future. Their
ambitions are fairly well-known: they want a democratic, independent
Iraq which enjoys economic prosperity due to its huge reserves of oil
(the second largest in the world).
-
- "The problem isn't strategy: it's tactics....
Responses in neighborhoods in Baghdad and Basra to the daily indignities
[caused by American soldiers], to the vulgarity and humiliation, are
liable to damage the most enlightened, prudent strategy." The Turkish
government official who made this statement brought up several examples
of mistaken tactics, which instantly evoke a well-known analogy.
-
- Last week, an American helicopter uprooted a Shi'ite
flag from a high antenna in a Baghdad neighborhood. What the helicopter
pilot intended remains unclear. In any case, the response on the street
was a stormy demonstration in which one person was killed, and several
were injured. The Shi'ites demanded an apology and compensation; the
Americans admitted they made a mistake.
-
- Two weeks earlier, the head of an important Iraqi
tribe was detained at a U.S. roadblock, and a woman soldier conducted a
body search in front of his fellow tribesmen. The response: a public
outcry from the elders of all the tribes whose cooperation the Americans
covet.
-
- Soldiers walk around the streets aiming their rifles
at pedestrians. Sometimes women are searched by male soldiers who make
vulgar jokes.
-
- "There is total ignorance about Iraqi culture among
the soldiers," said the Turkish government official. "In many cases, the
soldiers don't even know where they are, what city they're next to, what
distinguishes Shi'ites from Sunnis, how women are to be treated, or what
they're supposed to look for."
-
- The Americans look ugly not only to Iraqis. Three
weeks ago, U.S. soldiers arrested a group of 11 Turkish soldiers in
Sulaymaniyah, in Northern Iraq, on suspicion that they intended to kill
the governor of Kirkuk. The incident threatened to disrupt relations
between Turkey and the U.S., and it ignited a huge storm of protests in
Turkey.
-
- "This was an act of personal revenge, and nothing
else," the Turkish government official said. "The American soldiers who
detained the Turks were ones who waited for a long time before the war
on the Mediterranean Sea, and were later transferred to Rumania in the
hope that the Turkish government would agree to let
- American troops pass through Turkey. These are
frustrated soldiers who nursed anger. How can you wage a serious war
when personal grievances govern the army's behavior? How can you allow a
solitary soldier at a roadblock or on a patrol to set policies which
influence America's status in Iraq?"
-
- "Mutual hatred between the Americans and Iraqis is
starting to develop in an almost natural fashion, and it exacts a price
each day. Soldiers are being killed, and the day of Iraq's liberation
seems far away," the Turkish official continued. "We know in our
ministries how to plan major moves, but reality changes every minute in
Iraq." Out of nowhere, it seems, Al-Qaida operatives turn up, or groups
from the fundamentalist Ansar Al-Islam group penetrate regions in Iraq;
also, Iranian
- operatives are setting up support cells in southern
Iraq, and various hoodlums control entire regions and branches of trade
in Baghdad. Each group cites some sort of rationale: they purport to be
fighting against the American conquest, and when large population
clusters in cities have no access to American-backed forces, they depend
on the support of local strongmen.
-
- Saddam Hussein's responsibility for the tragedy of
Iraq is eroding rapidly. Saddam is being replaced by the American
soldier, who is viewed by a large segment of the population as being to
blame for the evolving chaos. While Iraqi citizens pay the price for
this renewed tragedy, America's Middle East strategy now faces its
greatest test.
-
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The
Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in
anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans
l'anarchie"
|
