American Carrier in the Persian Gulf. Credit: Iranian Revolutionary Guard
I am writing a post on the Congo War, but it got too complicated and depressing to finish for now. The war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been raging on and off for years, near four million are dead. Doesn’t make much news in the western media, brown people killing brown people rarely does. It’s a complicated mess, three overlapping wars, dozens of factions, and intervening foreign forces. If I ever understand it well enough to blog about it, I will finish the post. What a depressing world we live in where there are wars too complicated to understand, do the people even fighting them understand what they are fighting about? Sometimes I wonder.
I came across a well researched blog post about the Mohammad Cartoon imbroglio that was all the rage awhile back. I highly recommend “Manufacturing Dissent: The Case of the Danish Cartoons.” Gee, turns out it’s not simply a case of upstanding western publications reproducing innocent drawings while ignorant uncivilized barbarians riot in the street. I won’t go into details, suffice it to say that the people who started this mess had a very definite agenda, and exercising freedom of expression wasn’t part of it.
Esteemed reader Jack of News Snipet ‘Blog made a comment about the invasion of Iraq that I wanted to address. He lauded the military’s accomplishment of at least bringing the Saddam reign to a swift and decisive end. And he is correct that the military did what they were ordered to do, they blitzed their way into Baghdad in record time with minimal losses all around. Score one for the good guys. If Baghdad had been Berlin and Saddam was Hitler, this really would have been a good thing.
There is however a fly in the ointment. In the headlong rush to Baghdad a number of Iraqi military units, especially local militias, were simply bypassed. The logic being that they could be mopped up later, or more likely, that the Iraqis would be so shocked and awed by our stunning victory that there would be no need to do so. Unfortunately if the architects of this mess had studied world war two history instead of world war two propaganda posters, they would have known something. The anti-Nazi insurgents that so plagued Hitler’s forces in the closing years of the war virtually all traced their origins back to…enemy units that had been surrounded and bypassed by Hitler’s blitzkrieg.
There was one USA general in Iraq that very much thought the American invading forces were making a big mistake bypassing local militias, and that a slower more methodical advance would have far more thoroughly pacified the nation. Hard to claim he was wrong in retrospect. War is not a football game where if you score the winning goal it’s all over. The Iraq war from the start is one of the most ill conceived, badly executed wars in history. This is a war based on the fantasies of supremely arrogant men who knew nothing of Iraq, war, or history.
Violence continues in Gaza and Palestine. I hardly even know what to say about the situation there anymore. The Israelis have kept the occupied territories in limbo for decades, until they give them back, annex them, or allow them to declare independence…the violence will continue. Mark my words. Is endless violence the Israeli plan? It certainly keeps their military well funded. Kind of like Bush’s war on terror, except on a smaller scale. And now that the USA has a West Bank and Gaza Strip of their own, maybe generations of Americans can grow up knowing nothing but tit for tat violence and retribution. Meanwhile Palestinians who are killing Israeli innocents aren’t helping their cause. Killing innocents never helps, it’s always a bad idea. What a mess.
In the Persian Gulf near Iran, the saber rattling by all parties continues. Iranian TV showed footage of the American fleet (above) apparently shot by an unmanned reconnaissance drone. If true, and there’s no reason to believe it’s not true apparently, this is a little disturbing. If a drone can get this close to an American Aircraft carrier…it does not speak highly of our air defense. Um, aren’t these guys on high alert? A drone is just a cruise missile with a camera instead of a bomb. Many military experts have pointed out that we are taking a terrible chance by having major military vessels in the Persian Gulf.
It only took the sinking of two British battleships in World War Two, The Repulse and the “unsinkable” Prince of Wales, to end the myth of British Naval invincibility. The reputation of American ground forces has already been considerably diminished by Bush’s foolish undertaking Iraq, he is risking a far more spectacular fate for the US Navy by putting them in a shallow puddle within range of Iranian missiles. One can only hope that Mr Bush is merely ignorant of the risk, and not actually trying to goad Iran to do something foolish that would give him a spectacular new propaganda event to re-vitalize his beloved “War on Terror.” Am I a cynic or what?
(The above image is claimed as Fair Use under US copyright law. It is an historically important image, it is not being used for profit, and it is central to the subject of the post.)
5 Comments
November 13, 2006 at 7:02 am
There’s a lot to chew on in there in terms of topic range, you do get around! :)
I agree, the Congo is very depressing. Have you read the articles of Johann Hari on the Congo in the Independent? I’d be happy to send a link if you consider resuming your post. I was astonished to find out about the heat-resistant mineral ‘coltan’ used in dig cameras and high tech consumer gadgets and how mining for it fuels wars there.
Btw, I hope you didn’t get too much of a shock from opening your phone!
November 13, 2006 at 10:30 am
As Heinlein said: “Specialization is for insects.” Plus I don’t like mini-posts, and I don’t have time to write an expanded post on every interesting topic I come across. Finally it’s a LOT of fun to write about different subjects, I can play with segues and use different items to illustrate points about other items just for starters. So there will be a good number of “Through Thick and Thin” posts in the future. :)
My evil cell phone, yes, I survived the shock, thanks for asking. Then I thought maybe if I could get my calico near it, they would mutually self destruct, both being evil incarnate under a deceptively sleek and attractive interior. All she did was use it to order some tuna pizza from Dominos, fortunately my fax machine is broken so it couldn’t be delivered.
;) Doug
November 13, 2006 at 10:31 am
PS Yes, send the Congo link, I am reasearching the war. I will eventually post about every stupid war on this planet. (There are no smart wars.)
November 13, 2006 at 11:40 am
Hey Doug!
Answer to paragraph 1: No. But the Congo is typical of one of the U.N.’s “successes”.
Paragraph 2: Interesting post. Always like to see the other side of the story.
Paragraph 3-5: Excellent point! I think what you say attests to the American “fast food nature.” We want to get everything cooked, wrapped up and in the bag while failing to acknowledge that what we are eating is bad for us, or that the best things take time. I think the invasion itself was well organized and executed with good precision by our military men–it was strictly a military operation, and I believe those involved did a good job–BUT the aftermath has been difficult. (In my previous comments I was wondering if the aftermath was the judicature of the State Department and the reason for the failure is that it had been left under the Department of Defense which is not created for such) However, if comparing it to the United States, it is progressing much more smoothly and quickly in Iraq than it did for us (far less than our 700,000 casualties!). We were still having civil war 100 years after the country was declared independent. The Iraqis seem to be way ahead of schedule. But was our intent occupation, or just to oust Saddam Hussein? It was stated in the beginning that the action was to depose Hussein. Can we deny that this didn’t happen with quick success?
Paragraph 6: I say we need to provide the Israelies an example! Let’s give our land back to the Indians, pack our bags and head back to Europe, Africa or wherever and then we will have the moral authority to tell Israel to give the land back to the Palestinians! :)
Paragraph 7: LOVE these little nuggets you throw out, Doug. That’s what keeps me coming back!
Paragraph 8: There’s a little cynic in all of us, Doug :)
Regards,
-Jack
November 15, 2006 at 4:12 am
Thanks Doug, I love your wit! Is it OK if I email the article to you? It is subscription only so the URL/ link for the Independent only gives you the first paragraph. I can send you the full article courtesy my university library subscription access. I’ll send it to your email address as indicated by your profile if that’s OK, in the next 24 hours. cheers, Ann