Deeply Ashamed

What have we in the West got to be proud about?
1) The state of the planet?
2) Our addiction to money, drugs and scarce resources?
3) The effect of Christianity?
4) Our democratic political systems?
5) The way we educate our children about values and morality?
6) Of what we did to Iraq?

I watched the BBCs ‘Secret Iraq’ the other night and it made me think about what we really did for that benighted country. So let’s take a good look at number 6 because it speaks volumes about issues 1-5.

Since the invasion it is estimated that about 100,000 Iraqis have been killed, of whom the vast majority were civilians. Exact figures are unknown because no one was counting.

When we invaded nuclear-free Iraq to ‘topple’ Saddam, there was no thought given to what would happen next. There was no plan to protect the civilian population. No plan to govern the country based on the fact that Saddam, by promoting the interests of the ‘bad guys’, the minority Sunnis, over the majority Shiites, had ruled by division.

An insurgency against us, the invaders, and internecine warfare between Iraqis, began simultaneously. The internecine warfare dominated the casualty rates. Within one year of the invasion, 30,000 Iraqis, mainly Sunnis, were dead: murdered, often by Shiite policemen, by killers who were trained and paid to keep order by the Americans, who did not want to promote Sunnis (because of past links to Saddam), nor to keep order themselves.

Into the vacuum created by ‘Christian’ America’s indifference to the plight of any sort of poor moslem, stepped al-Qaida. Within a few months, large areas of Baghdad became ‘no go’ zones. Al-Qaida is Sunni and now it was the turn of the Shiites to die in their hundreds. Outside Baghdad, in the the Sunni city of Anbar, 12,000 al-Qaida fighters paraded, declaring Anbar an Islamic Republic.

It took two assaults by US Marines to take back Anbar. The first, an all-American affair, did not succeed. The second was a joint Sunni-Marine affair, which did. ‘Way to go!’ Oh. Anbar was ruined and thousands of civilians died trapped in their own homes. But note the change of policy.

‘Christian’ America’s indifference to the plight of the ‘bad guys’ was history, a word that goes down badly in America. But by this time, over 3000 Americans were history (dead), which might have had something to do with the policy change. In fact al-Qaida’s brutal attitude to ordinary Iraqis caused (even) the Sunnis to shun them, even to cooperate with the Americans. Called The Awakening, this was a turning point. From then on, Sunnis stopped killing Shiites and began protecting Americans from both insurgents and al-Qaida.

Such was the better state of affairs by 2007, but only in the American zone. The British, ‘controlling‘ the south, were in big trouble. The city of Basra was slipping out of control. Because of moral and actual poverty (Britain’s inability to reinforce their own forces or even equip them properly), Shiite militias were set to drive them out of the city. Lack of forces and resources meant that the British army couldn’t stop them.

The retreat was covered by a political agreement. ‘You get out and if you don’t come back, we won’t kill you.‘ The British, in order to protect themselves rather than the people of Basra, got out and didn’t go back. Having sustained many casualties I expect that the average British squaddy was disgusted by the political agreement.

In Basra, as in Baghdad some two years earlier, the killing of Iraqis by Iraqis, especially of women by religious fanatics backed by Iran, began in ernest. A combined Iraqi and American force rushed south and set about retaking control of Basra. Deeply ashamed, the British offered to help. The Iraqi prime minister told them, no thanks.

All that can be said about the allied invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam was that, unlike the British, and at the expense of untold thousands of Iraqi civilians, the Americans were not actually defeated. I expect they’ll end up with lion’s share of Iraqi oil. Mission accomplished?

Our children might learn about all this, eventually, if anyone is left to teach history. We try to educate our children about values and morality by our own example, and then along comes something like Iraq. Later we profess amazement that they don’t seem to know the difference between right and wrong.

As for our democratic political systems, issue number 4, they allowed politicians to take us to war without first seeking our permission. All protests were squashed and ignored.

Because of our addictions to money and ever dwindling energy resources, issue number 2, it can be argued that to maintain Western lifestyles, our leaders are willing to go to war to secure supplies. If Iraq produced as much cocaine as Columbia, I shudder to think how much money the private contractors hired by America would be making by now.

Issue number 2 is linked to the morality factor in issue number 5, as well as to issue number 1: the Big Issue. Ergo, the acquisition and the burning of fossil fuels is wrecking the planet.

Issue number 7 may turn out to be something about, not caring about the Big Issue because we’ll all be dead beforehand. And fcuk the kids.