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Iraqi Civilian Deaths ... caused by Bush's unprovoked war

 

Winning the war
(George F. Will, May 2, 2004)
"We came here to start a soccer league," said a Marine major after a fierce firefight in Fallujah last week. "Instead, they are forcing us to topple mosques." The attempt to manufacture soccer mullahs, like ordering thousands of Frisbees for distribution to playful Iraqis, may seem like episodes from a Graham Greene novel — "The Quiet American in Mesopotamia." But before the games can begin, the war must be won, and no war is won until the losing side knows it has lost. "An uptick in localized engagements" was the U.S. command's description of the current wave of violence that menaces the four main roads from Baghdad to Syria, Jordan, Turkey and Kuwait. And Bush administration voices still dismiss the insurgents as "gangs" and "thugs." "The enemy did not run," said another Marine officer after another Fallujah battle. "They fought us like soldiers." The enemy is coordinated and clever. The attack by two speedboats loaded with explosives that targeted a tanker taking on Iraqi oil in the port of Basra failed, in the sense that one boat was destroyed before it could strike the tanker, and the one that struck the tanker did not explode. But the attack succeeded in this sense: overnight the insurance rate for tankers shipping Iraqi oil exports doubled. This "terror premium" could make Iraqi oil too expensive for sale at the world market price, further damaging Iraqi reconstruction efforts at a time when pandemic violence in Iraqi cities has confined many private contractors to protected compounds. By storing weapons and munitions in mosques and by firing from minarets, the insurgents do indeed compel U.S. forces to damage mosques, or adhere to rules of engagement that endanger American lives or preclude retaking any cities the insurgents choose to turn into combat zones. But if U.S. forces are to economize violence, they must disabuse the enemy of his recurring delusion that the United States is paralyzed by squeamishness about violence and its collateral damage. ...If such standoffs are the real alternatives to forceful suppression of the insurgents, then it is feckless to object to such suppression because the insurgents hope to draw America into violence that will alienate the population. The population may detest an America that fights its way to control of cities, but the population will have contempt for an America that is unable or, worse, able but unwilling to wrest cities from insurgents. Meanwhile, military commanders in Iraq face agonizing choices entailed by those antiseptic political locutions "regime change" and "nation building." The commander in chief seems not to fathom the depth of the difficulties when he describes the insurgent cleric Moqtada [al-] Sadr as a person who will not "allow democracy to flourish." "Allow"? If some bad people would just behave, democracy would sprout like tulips?

*****It's always encouraging when the Rightwing press speaks about the realities of this wayward war. George Will's voice is always reasoned and becoming more and more a voice of those conservatives who are appalled at what Little Bush and his band of merrymakers have done to this country. I just hope that it is not too late. ....But that's just this old curmudgeon's opinion"******

posted by An Old Curmudgeon 7:29 AM