Category Archives: Iraq War

The Fort Dix Deep Six

Iraq War, Islamophobia, Journalism and Media, Luke R. E. Publican, Terrorism Issue

Things can’t get worse; they can only get worse. No, this is not poor grammar or end-of-semester illogic but my first impression after listening to the hard-to-digest dollop of the morning news. Another suicide bomb killed and maimed scores in Iraq, this time in the Kurdish town of Irbil. The Bush administration suggests that things are getting better in Baghdad since the wall-less security crackdown, but that is debatable. What is not open to debate is that other parts of the country continue to spiral in insecurity, perhaps due in part to the targeted crackdown in one place. None of this seems to matter to Vice-President Cheney who has made a surprise visit to the Green Zone, mainly it seems to convince the Iraqi parliament not to take a summer vacation this year and be nice about dividing up the spoils of America’s, I mean Iraq’s, oil profits.

In this case it is not only the shit hitting the fan, but the gold as well. Gold as in Fort Dix (Fort Knox or whatever…) but I hope not a golden journalistic award to a local newspaper. Continue reading The Fort Dix Deep Six →

Faces of the Fallen

Afghanistan, Iraq War, Terrorism Issue

While Congress debates target dates for withdrawal and President Bush wields his veto bravado, the casualties from a no-longer-admired, quagmired war in Iraq continue to mount. For Operation Iraqi Freedom 3,345 American military personnel have lost their lives; for Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan the number is a far more modest 381, yielding a total of 3,726 total fatalities overall. Then there are the Iraqi civilians and insurgents who have died, usually in bloody and terror-damned ways, reaching between 63,000 and 69,000 according to Iraq Body Count, but with estimates well above 100,000. Figures for Afghanistan are harder to come by. The initial bombing campaign four years ago took an estimated 3000-3400 civilian lives, with more every passing year. The sheer numbers, although not catastrophic when compared to big bloody wars of the past, are still numbing. But listing names is the easy way out; looking at the faces of the fallen takes more courage. Continue reading Faces of the Fallen →

May Day, May Day

Iraq War, Terrorism Issue

“May day, may day.” You can take this in two ways. First, this is the day in which many working people in the world celebrate being workers. This is not the way it will be commemorated on the front lawn of the White House today. Then there is the military version of a Spitfire on fire and a pilot knowing it is time to bail out. The pilot currently occupying the White House is wielding his veto power today in order to stay the course. Since he is not yet convicted that the war is lost, he sees no need to bail out.

But let’s flash back four years to the banner day “Mission Accomplished” speech of a boastful George Bush on the deck of USS Abraham Lincoln. Continue reading May Day, May Day →

Up Against a Wall

Humor and Satire, Iraq War

The Iraq War on its way to the record books as one of the longest wars in American history is at last, without any lingering doubt, up against a wall. One of the top stories today in the New York Times says it all: “U.S. Erects Baghdad Wall to Keep Sects Apart.” “American military commanders in Baghdad are trying a radical new strategy to quell the widening sectarian violence by building a 12-foot-high, three-mile-long wall separating a historic Sunni enclave from Shiite neighborhoods,” write reporters Edward Wong and David S. Cloud. In other words, when push comes to surge and surge comes up against a brick wall, then just go ahead and do something concrete, like building a wall. The new military strategy becomes ‘ where there is a wall, there is a way.’ Continue reading Up Against a Wall →

Names of the Dead

Iraq War

Each day the New York Times has the courage to publish the names of American military personnel killed in Iraq. Today nine names are listed, the youngest at age 18. A Private first class from Paradise, California only found hell in serving his country in a war that even the most diehard (and these young men seem to die all too easily) neocons know cannot be won, only endured until the next election. These soldiers had first names of Shaun, Jesse, Mario, Aaron, Daniel, Joshua, Lucas, Steven and Brandon – a genealogical snapshot of America’s diversity. They grew up in Indiana, Illinois, California, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Minnesota, and Missouri. They could have been studying at a college. But for the names of those dead you would need to flip through the pages to read about the victims of the student rampage massacre at Virginia Tech on Monday.

What do these two lists have in common? In each case young lives were taken and careers ended before they began. Families had to confront the horror of death close to home. There are new scars that will never heal. There are tears that can never stop flowing. There is the nagging question of how could this happen. Continue reading Names of the Dead →

Napoleon Tried It: He Failed

Egypt, Iraq War, Islamic History, Orientalist Art


Illustration: “Napoleon and his General Staff in Egypt” by Jean-Léon Geróme, 1867

In 1798 the French leader Napoleon, a seemingly mature 28 year old at the time, set off from France with a fleet of 400 ships and 36,000 men. The goal was to conquer Egypt and “liberate” it from the corrupt Mamluk overlords. No CNN or BBC reporters were around; nor had al-Jazeera set up a satellite feed. It did not take long for the French to overwhelm the Egyptians with about 25,000 French against 15,000 local Mamluks. Napoleon won in sight of the Pyramids, but very soon after the entire mission was doomed to failure when Lord Nelson obliterated the French fleet. Napoleon himself left Cairo secretly a year later, returned to France and turned his conquest machine against fellow Europeans.
Continue reading Napoleon Tried It: He Failed →

The Sunni Triangle: Where is Square One?

Iraq War

[Pick your triangle and move to square one…]Our self-effusive politicians lie rather than admit mistakes. Our soldiers keep dying and these same politicians talk about sending more into harm’s way in Baghdad. The military death toll is now only 60 off the 3000 mark, one we are sure to reach in early January. Yesterday the Department of Defense released the names of the last nine on this list: they were Joe, Matthew, Henry, Kevin, Nicklas, David, Matthew, Seth and Luke. Tomorrow new names will be added. “Regretable but acceptable,” argue the rhetorical warriors against international terrorism.

It seems like everyday we are back to square one. Continue reading The Sunni Triangle: Where is Square One? →

Gone to Pottery Barn

Iraq War

In a candid moment near the start of the Iraq War (pre-civil, civil or post-civil), then Secretary of State Colin Powell told President Bush exactly what the Iraq Study Group has now reminded him three years later. We broke Iraq and now we own the problem. We have been paying, of course, all along in lives and billions of dollars that might have served a useful purpose rather than taking more lives. Now encoded in mediaspeak as the “Pottery Barn rule,” the label sticks even though the commercial Pottery Barn does not have such a rule. The fact that the situation in Iraq is “grave and deteriorating,” as the Iraq Study Group bluntly states, shows that the current war and occupation have indeed gone to pot. Leave it to ten former politicians and continuing public personas to hash[ish] it out and exhume the failed policy for all to see. Continue reading Gone to Pottery Barn →