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Bring 'Em On, or how to start a Guerilla War
The other day, President Bush was asked on television a very good question "…about the steadily mounting attacks on U.S. occupation forces in Iraq". Our president's answer, typical of most other chickenhawks was both belligerent and childish "Bring 'Em On" he deadpanned.
Excuse me Mr. President, I don't recall seeing your smiling face manning a checkpoint, pulling patrols in hostile territory or ever being shot at. As a soldier, let me say "Thanks a lot buddy". This is just what we need to help win over the Iraqi people over, it's only slightly less effective than random carpet bombing.
Bush and his ignorant (of war) chickenhawk, neo-conservative advisors are in fact doing just the opposite of pacification of the Iraqi people who no longer view us as their liberators but as an occupying and invading army. Local services are disrupted, the infrastructure is non-existent and in short, the natives are restless. The Iraqi people are prime candidates for building a guerilla army and seem to be on the way toward that end.
Rebuilding the infrastructure should be job one and indeed we the taxpayers have been hit with a bill of billions of dollars for this. Someone needs to inform Bush and his friends though that the rebuilding effort needs to go beyond simply passing billions of stolen taxpayer dollars to your cronies. A good starting point might be getting the electricity turned on and then asking what pinhead selected the power generation plants as targets. NEWSFLASH - the military do not need civilian power stations, that's what all those camouflage painted gasoline powered generator sets are for. Bombing the power stations only ensured that civilians would be without power as the military are prepared for such contingencies. Perhaps military targets should be selected by professional warriors and not chickenhawks with a vandalistic streak.
Soldiers in Iraq, thanks to the un-Constitutional deployment by our commander in chief, are being required to perform duties they are not supposed to. While humanitarian relief is no doubt a noble cause, it is not the stated duty of an American army or it's soldiers. Lately, humanitarian missions have become nothing but police duties and deployment with no exit strategy.
Our soldiers are being used to pacify the Iraqi's and the Iraqi's aren't in any mood to be pacified. What is most bizarre though is that the "pacification" attempts are such complete failures and are indicative of the police state mentality of the American political elitists that have hijacked our Constitutional Republic. Our police state overlords actually believe that roadblocks, checkpoints, house to house searches and military raids on civilians are going to win over and pacify the Iraqi people.
While this sort of behavior has worked quite well (in the opinion of the police state) at pacifying the American people when they get unruly, it isn't working out too well in Iraq. Americans are accustomed to the mailed fist of government smashing down on anyone who dissents; refuse to pay your taxes and see how long it takes for a SWAT team to seize your home. Defy the federal government in any significant way and they will come after you hammer and tongs; (writing angry letters to your Congressman is not considered defiance, it means you are still a slave).
Citizens don't like soldiers as cops any more than they like cops playing soldier. Citizens especially don't like an invading army playing cop because soldiers are trained to be brutal and rough, it's their job to kill people and break things. A checkpoint by a soldier might be run politely enough, that is until something goes a little awry, then it becomes very aggressive, even brutal, when in doubt empty the magazine as we used to say. Every Iraqi citizen that gets brutalized by an American soldier (regardless of how well intentioned that soldier was), adds one more supporter to the anti-American guerilla forces.
Not everybody who is manhandled or abused by the troops will be picking up an AK-47 or an RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade launcher) and firing it at our troops. Many will become supporters, passing on information, providing aid and comfort or generally giving quiet support to the rebel forces. At the very least they will harbor deep anger and look for an outlet to vent their frustration, hardly a candidate for pacification.
Because we have a dearth of combat leadership combined with an elitist bunch of self styled aristocrats at the helm of our war machine, our foreign policy is starting to resemble the British Empire. With total disregard for the safety of our troops, our commander in chief has tasked them with a mission that they can not accomplish, the pacification of the Iraqi people. The Bush administration believes you can intimidate the Iraqi's into pacification, something that even Saddam Hussein wasn't able to do and he was quite aggressive.
And so each day our soldiers are increasingly being targeted in ambushes that wound, maim or kill them. The president has announced that this occupation will go on for possibly ten years which means he has no idea when, if ever, it will end. President Bush will not be at the helm in ten years and so it's easy to project an exit strategy that is vague, nebulous and most importantly way into the future.
The more a soldier serves in occupation duty, the more he is resented which makes him equally resentful in return. Citizens of Iraq, when they have had enough, will join the rebels in increasing numbers, either overtly or clandestinely. Soldiers will likewise become more hostile, viewing the Iraqi's as 'the enemy' and treating them as such.
As the rebels grow in numbers, their attacks on US and coalition soldiers will become more frequent, more aggressive and better organized. For those who have never been in the military, let me explain that soldiers have to sleep and eat at some time and can not be on 100% alert, 24/7, and they will be ambushed when they are not prepared for attack, that is the way a guerilla war is fought. I have already heard our soldiers giving the lament of anyone who has had to fight guerillas, "why don't they come out and fight like men". Indeed, they aren't interested in a fight, they just want to kill the occupying "infidels".
To help reduce American casualties though, Bush has sought to buy the services of Pakistani and Indian soldiers by offering tens of billions of our taxpayer dollars to these nations as a not too subtle bribe. These same bribes were given to a majority of the other "coalition of the willing" forces, all done without Congressional approval. Keep in mind that our economy is in the toilet and that the mass printing and distribution of dollars is going to weaken the dollar, bring our economy even lower and create disasters.
But none of this should bother Bush, after all, he grew up in the lap of luxury, immune and insulated from the common man, the kind who are providing their sons and daughters to the bloodbath in Iraq. Bush and crew do not need to fear a bad or weak economy, they are all quite wealthy enough and stand to become even wealthier due to this occupation. Most importantly though, wars always serve as convenient distractions for tyrants to seize further state power and robbing the treasury, not to mention lining their pockets with money.
By refusing to allow the Iraqi people the right of self-determination while simultaneously installing the hated Muhammad Karzai in Afghanistan, Bush is ensuring that there will be endless conflict in both these regions. Should either of these taper off, Bush is fully prepared to send our sons and daughters into Iran or Syria as his belligerent rhetoric now indicates. "Bring 'em on" indeed.
In Freedom,
Al Lorentz
State Chairman, Constitution Party of Texas
10 July 2003
Al Lorentz is a Fundamentalist Christian and the State Chairman of the Constitution Party of Texas
Al Lorentz's Bio.
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