Correspondents'
Journal
May
9, 2004
The Black Hole of War
As we pass the anniversary of President Bush’s “Mission
Accomplished” declaration, the people of the United States
are beginning to recognize our commonality with the Iraqi people
as casualties and victims of war.
Administration officials, downplaying the absence
of weapons of mass destruction, suggest that the preemptive war
was waged to rid Iraq of tyranny and restore democracy and human
rights. In the meantime, the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority
(CPA) has set up headquarters in the palaces of the ousted regime
of Saddam Hussein and has taken control of Iraq’s precious
oil resources and finances. Coalition forces have taken over
the administration of Iraq’s prisons, including the infamous
torture chambers of Abu Ghraib.
Revelations of systemic torture, persecution,
and humiliation in coalition-run prisons have shaken the world.
In public testimony, t he U.S. Army has admitted
to the Senate that there was evidence of extensive abuse of prisoners
in military-run jails in Iraq. The U.S. public and the Congress
were seemingly kept in the dark. According to the Associated
Press, t here have been twenty-five recorded deaths of prisoners
under military custody in Iraq and Afghanistan. U.S. Army personnel,
in contravention of humanitarian international law, have routinely
held persons without accounting for them, knowing their identities,
or even giving the reason for their detention.
Broken beyond repair
"The system works," insists Secretary
of Defense Rumsfeld. Ask most Iraqis and they’ll assure
you that the system is broken and can’t be fixed. Rumsfeld
said the buck stops with him. Iraqis may well prefer that the
buck stop at the International Court of Justice, and might suggest
that Rumsfeld seek God’s mercy rather than offering feeble
apologies to Iraq’s families long after the facts were
known.
The revelations are nothing new to the people
of Iraq. Since the early days of occupation, voices on the streets
of Iraq’s cities have raged against the occupier, with
daily testimony of abuse from imprisoned or recently released
fathers and sons and brothers. But in occupied Iraq, who listens
to the cries of the people?
Since the story broke, the administration and
congressional and military leaders—like children who have
knowingly done bad—have assured themselves and the rest
of the world that the United States remains a great nation, while
expressing outrage and promising to prosecute the few, wayward
perpetrators of these sadistic crimes. The president has joined
in a chorus of apologies to the victims of the torture and abuse,
and to their families.
Many Iraqis will tell you the apologies are too
little, too late. The U.S. government has lost much of its credibility
in Iraq; its words fall on shallow ground.
Read reactions from the region
Who will apologize?
We need to ask: Where has the outrage been over
the year of occupation? Where is the outrage at the ongoing abuses
of occupation? Where is the outrage over the lies and failed
promises?
Who will apologize to the Iraqis for the years
of devastating sanctions, for invading and occupying their country,
destroying their infrastructure and civil society, killing and
maiming thousands of innocent children, women, and men, destroying
families, implementing collective punishment, plowing under fields
and crops, and for the crimes of humiliation and the ravaging
of what was left of a people’s hopes and dreams?
Who will apologize for sending our American sons
and daughters, inadequately trained and poorly commanded, to
distant lands? Many—barely out of high school with few
of life’s experiences to guide them—have become casualties
of a morally bankrupt policy, while some have turned into abusive
guards and perpetrators of sadistic acts.
Who will apologize to the families of our soldiers,
thousands of whom have been killed or maimed? Many joined the
military because it was their only job opportunity, or ticket
to college, or way out of enduring poverty in our great nation.
Who will apologize for destroying their hopes, dreams, and lives,
and those of their families?
Who will apologize to the child in Peoria, Illinois,
whose school was forced to reduce programs while her family’s
food stamps were eliminated because our leaders flung our precious
tax dollars down the black hole of war?
Too late…or too early?
Pentagon officials have decided to keep the current
level of American troops in Iraq (about 135,000) until the end
of 2005, in an acknowledgment of long-term instability; simultaneously,
the administration requests another $25 billion to maintain troop
levels in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Defense Department has called
up another 37,000 Reservists and National Guard members for deployment
in Iraq. Most of these men and women have families. Who will
apologize for the lost income, broken bodies, and broken families
resulting from this latest deployment?
Iraqis are not looking for apologies. Many have
disdain for the United States’ words of concern, as they
continue to deal with life and death under our occupation. Iraqis
are looking for reparations for the loss of life, liberty, and
property. Iraqis are looking for action and results that will
benefit their lives and rebuild their nation and restore their
hope.
Where do we go from here?
We are shocked at revelations that private American
contractors—who carried out interrogations, gave reprehensible
orders, and are accused of killing detainees—have not been
held accountable because they were not under U.S. military jurisdiction; yet,
the civilian population of Iraq is.
What is the message this administration sends
to the Iraqi people? How can a U.S.-led occupation that violates
international law hope to introduce law and order onto the streets
of Iraq? How are Iraqis expected to regain order under the morally
bankrupt policies of an occupier who circumvents its own laws
and has contempt for international law? The United States’ actions
only animate the world’s opposition to U.S. hegemony and
inflame the anti-coalition forces to become more aggressive in
their actions. Our opponents prefer to die in combat than to
suffer abuses in captivity.
Where do we go from here? How do we, as people
of the United States, respond? How are we to be heard? How does
one even attempt, as someone from the United States, to support
the Iraqi people—through action and not word alone?
- Rick McDowell and
Mary Trotochaud
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