A: And children.
Couldn’t see this coming… right. Stories of summary execution, imprisonment, and torture of Iraqi civilians who earn the wrath of the world’s greatest war machine, from soldiers disgusted at their own actions and the works of their “band of brothers.” Of course it was foreordained: clueless about the language, history, culture, religion, and politics of the people they are amidst, ignorant, callow, and purposely brutalized (to kill, their humanity has to be broken) soldiers lash out with a fury. Their racism (“sand nigger” and “haji,” [a term of respect in Moslem societies, here bastardized] are the “gook” of the day) and arrogance play superbly into the hands of their enemies, alienating the locals, fostering anti-Americanism, stoking the fires of vengeance. An army of occupation is a sitting duck in the filthy politics of war; right out the Algeria playbook.
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died as a result of George Bush’s war. Two million are exiles. How much longer are we going to put up with this?
It isn't pessimism that makes me say this, merely history: even if the war ended tomorrow, there will still be years of revelations about war crimes committed in our name. And the soldiers themselves, traumatized by all the brutality, what’s to become of them?
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