"Meanwhile, hundreds of Iraqis detained in the U.S. security crackdown in Baghdad are being held in two detention centers designed to hold only a dozen or so people, The New York Times, reported today. The report also disclosed that 705 detained people were packed into an area built for 75 (by US forces) at one of the detention centers, south of Baghdad. The other center, held 272 people, including two women and four boys, in a space designed to hold about 50. (I have been to detention centers in Iraq. Not exactly a real model of success).
Okay Marshall, war is hell; what is your point?
The point, which seemingly escapes our President and his ardent Republican followers is that no one can police or manage a Civil War.
Any foreign troops present in a Civil war simply become victims of both sides of the war. In this case, that would be us, the United States.
The fighters in the Iraqi Civil War have not made the U.S. the victim. We did that ourselves.
Is it that The President feels we need to share the misery, being that we brought it upon them? No, not because we came in and took out Saddam. That was a good thing to do, since we were already there to get all the weapons of mass destruction and the nukes Saddam had hidden so cleverly.
Once we had prevented the "mushroom" cloud, Vice President Cheney had assured us would hit America from Iraq, I guess it was just a hop to go ahead and take out Saddam. No that was not what we did wrong.
We stayed and tried to make all the decisions for the "liberated" Iraqi population. We stayed and brought hell down upon these newly liberated people.
We fired all the technocrats, got rid of all the police, did away with the Army and abolished all of the civil institutions which maintained the country's ability to deliver the basics required by all civilized populations on earth.
Basics like water, electricity, power, schools, libraries, Universities, Airports, Train Stations, food and a few other amenities.
We had the chance to walk away, leaving the basic governmental formations in tact, being lead and managed by Iraqis who had stepped up to the plate and were actually qualified to do so.
Our stature and reputation in the world would have been preserved and America, once again, would have been the ones who came to the rescue. Unfortunately that was not in the plans of George Bush and his personable Vice President Dick Cheney. They decided to conquer instead, and that's a little different.
We (America) tore it all down and then realized we did not know how to put it back together. Consequently chaos, mayhem, anarchy, religious hegemony and utter hell rules the day. The Iraqi people no longer like Americans? Can you imagine that? Some would say that was downright ungrateful.
The other major groups of victims are:
1. The American military members who gallantly go into battle in the strictest spirit of military presence, tradition, bravery and courage, defending the freedom and liberty of the Iraqi people. He and she believe that is the mission. Our soldiers and Marines go where we do not, can not, dare not. True knights in shinning armor every one of them. My own son was wounded there, and his little brother serve there as well. God bless these men and women who have been sent into harms way, for what we now know are reasons which may have been contrived by the Bush Administration.
No act of courage, selflessness, mercy or defense is ever wasted, or for nothing. We have every reason to sing the praises of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.
2. The Iraqi citizens who have not taken up arms. Millions of them living in a daily inferno of death, destruction and sorrw. Afraid to help, afraid not to. Risking death each and every time they walk out the front door. Moving from their family home, in the dark of the night, because they have been threatened with death by local militia and police. . If Sunni, they cannot call the police. The police are Shia and daily participate in killing Sunnis in an effort to cleanse Iraq from its former overseers. The police are using weapons, provided by America, they would not otherwise have had if we had not provided them in such a wholesale manner before they were organized and regimented enough to manage the forces.
Thousands of Iraqi families have had their own children, relatives and loved ones simply gunned down in the street for no apparent reason, or blown to pieces in the market where they bought their daily bread.
3. The world community, who, at first agreed, based on false information, to join in the Coalition of the willing, only to later discover the fallacy of our presence. Americas relationships and trusted partnerships with countries from all over the world, forged over years of diplomacy and mutual trust, gone.
4. The American citizens, encouraged by the Bush Administration and the Republicans in power, to judge the motives and misgivings about our government as expressed by fellow Americans and to call any disagreement, or dissent with the President as unpatriotic.
After 260 years of developed standards regarding human rights, our President announces to the world that America will now torture prisoners and imprison citizens and non-citizens alike without trial, accusation, public hearing or communications with the outside world.
The advent of the Patriot Act and the Detainee Bill passed by the Republican Congress which virtually eliminated any personal privacy, or hapeaus corpus rights of American citizens, brought a new level of government rule and power over the citizens it was meant to serve. All unchallenged, and in fact, encouraged by those who would benefit the most from such control over the American citizens, the Republican Party and the President. Even now, the President, in what now seems hollow words, tells us that Iraq will be overrun with terrorist and Muslim extremist who will use Iraq to plot our destruction.
I lived in the Middle East for eight years, three of those in Iraq serving with the Coalition Provincial Authority as the Airport Director of Basrah International Airport and later as a US State Department Diplomatic appointee in Baghdad. The Iraqi people are educated, nationalistic, intolerant of foreigners and will no way allow any group, Muslim or not, to establish a foot hold in Iraq which denigrates the Iraq people in any way. If you want to see a slaughter of terrorist in Iraq, leave. The Iraqi population and Army will take care of their own business. It may not be pretty, but they will eventually settle it once and for all. Without the United States combat forces.
Like a serious wound in the flesh, Iraq will take time to stop bleeding and heal. A long time, but it will heal. There will be a scar of the past left after all is said and done in Iraq. Unfortunately it will be one we put there.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marshall Adame is a retired US Marine Vietnam veteran who became an Aviation Management/Logistics consultant in 1992.
Marshall worked in the Kuwait recovery of 1992-93.
He the Senior Aviation Logistics Manager for Kaman Aerospace in Egypt US Government programs for four years.
Marshall was in Iraq from mid-2003 until late-2006 where:
In 2003 he was the US Coalition Airport Director for Basrah Int'l Airport in Iraq.
In 2004 he was VP for Aviation Development with The Sandi Group Int'l, Iraq.
In 2005 Marshall was a Department of State US Diplomatic Advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Interior and with the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT) where he was on the staff of the National Coordination Team (NCT) in Baghdad.
Marshall returned to the USA in September 2006 and is currently on staff as a Senior Analyst for a DOD project.
Marshall and his wife Becky (3rd grade teacher) have been married for 37 years and have four children, Paul, Veronica, William and Benjamin, and eleven grandchildren.
Their sons William and Benjamin, served in Iraq in the US Army. William was wounded in action on July 2nd 2006.
Marshall and Becky reside in Jacksonville North Carolina. marshall_adame@yahoo.com
Note: Marshall Adame is a 2008 Democratic candidate for Congress in North Carolina's 3rd District and is a supporter of John Edwards for President