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Over the Edge

By Larry Johnson on July 11, 2006 at 10:45 AM in Current Affairs

by
W. Patrick Lang

A recent piece in the Seattle Post Intelligencer notes that:

"Some Iraqis recall having false identification papers to avoid persecution during Saddam’s rule, but the practice was rare until recently because the former regime kept tight control over its subjects.

"Under Saddam it used to be shameful, but now everybody’s doing it," the bookseller said.

A newspaper commentator mockingly suggested Iraqis should turn to the Bible instead of Islam to find names for their children.

"According to the present sectarian concepts, fathers should choose ‘neutral names’ such as Jesus, Adam, or Abraham that have nothing to do with the two sectarian camps," Sabah al-Lami wrote in the independent al-Mashriq newspaper."

I think this is it.  This weekend we crossed over a divide into
territory where reprisal is its own reward and death is the automatic
price of ancient group enmity in Iraq.  It appears to me that random
executions based on the mere PROBABILITY that a name indicates communal
membership have now become the norm in "sectarian violence".  Further
reprisals will follow, amd then further reprisals and then further
reprisals.  It will go "all the way down" as Friedman said of the civil
war in Lebanon.  (That was before the world became flat)  It is
fortunate that we are not facing actual civil war in Iraq (irony fully intended)  We
insisted in our vision of a "brave new world" to come in the Middle
East that such outmoded distinctions as group identity would lose
effectiveness and would quickly die out in a universal joy brought on
by an abundance of individual rights.  (You can almost hear the "Ode to Joy" in the background.)

Now we are at the place in Iraq
in which religion as philosophy and hope of salvation no longer
matters.  What matters now is religion as SECT, religion as GROUP
identity.  Iraq is going to bleed like a river and howl like a hyena,
and it is our government’s fault.

In the midst of this emerging chaos we will have the US armed forces
still dutifully trying to comprehend, still trying to do its duty,
still agonizing over unspeakable crimes done by its children.

It will become increasingly hard to focus on that as we watch this Juggernaut roll down the slope.

Who is going to pay for this folly?  Who?

  • JerryB

    During the propaganda run-up to the war it was hard to get any information other than the administration line. I do remember, however, hearing someone talking about Saddams long term chances of survival without the war as being very low. I wish I could remember who it was or where I heard it but it was clear that this person believed that left alone Saddam wasn’t going to last much longer anyway.

    If that were true I don’t belive that either of his sons could have held on to power for very long. This would have quickly led to a power vaccumn that would have been filled by the same people who were trying to take power in the early post combat-ops period. People who behind the scenes are at the root of much of the killing we are seeing now.

    Its also become clear that the Middle East has become more and more radicalized in the last twenty years. This has led to incidents of sectarian violence. Isolated at first but becoming more common over the years.Its very likely we would have seen this kind of chaos in Iraq anyway but at least it wouldn’t have been our fault.

    My main fear now is that the violence and instability will spread to the rest of the region.

  • m

    We know who should be held responsible for this horror. But there is not a politician in the US who will even speak about bringing justice to those who brought this criminal war and its horrendous consequences into being. Though, it would clearly be the best possible thing that we could do.

  • SusanUnPC

    Exquisitely written.

    This: “Iraq is going to bleed like a river and howl like a hyena, and it is our government’s fault.”

    And the following paragraph about our military’s impossible predicament.

    Who will pay, indeed.

    We need to revolt at the ballot boxes in ’06 and ’08, and then HOLD THEIR FEET TO THE FIRE, and make them — well, before revenge, I think we have a whole lot of messes to focus on and clean up (intelligence, justice, Medicare, etc., etc.). And then we need to hold the MOTHER of all hearings — bring Sam Ervin back from the grave, and lay down the law. Because it is the law that the Bush administration — every one of them — has broken.

  • http://profile.typekey.com/MarshaWalsh/ Agathena2

    Who’s going to pay?

    Iraqis like little three year old Hamoudy receiving treatment in the US for a bullet in the face.

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003119017_muhammed11m.html
    (SusanUnPC sent me the link this morning.)

  • taters

    Dear Col Lang,
    Thank you for this very sober assessment.

  • SusanUnPC

    That’s a beautifully written, compelling article — and it shows how GOOD-HEARTED most Americans are. It’s a tragedy what happened to Hamoody, and I pray that he can remain in the U.S. longer so he can get more help.

    IF ONLY such efforts came from the top …

    Agathena, you should expound here on your conversation/debate with Josh Marshal about the lack of planning that has allowed this disaster to occur in Iraq.l

  • Leslie

    It wasn’t just the lack of planning that allowed this disaster to occur, although that was criminal in itself. It was the Bush administration’s idea that if they democratized Iraq by force, the rest of the Middle East would follow suit. So many people tried to warn them that that idea was folly. All they had to do was look at the history books too, at what happened to the British in Iraq.

    The Bush administration ought to answer for war crimes at the Hague—starting with their idea of preemption. We need to hold Congressional investigations. This isn’t about exacting revenge. This is about seeking justice and enforcing the rule of law, which the Bushies have violated again and again.

    Of course, many Americans have kind hearts. But too many Americans have also remained silent, giving Bush their tacit approval. Therefore, as Americans we need to send a clear message that we won’t tolerate what Bush has done. And we also need to rethink our foreign policies. We clearly can’t trust politicians to know what the f–k they’re doing.

  • kim

    In India, post partition, it was a simple matter of lifting the dhoti.
    ================

  • Leslie

    There’s an article at Truthout discussing the prima facie case for bringing charges of war crimes against Bush by the former chief prosecutor at the Nuremburg Trials.

    Link: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071106J.shtml

  • Retired

    Two observations from someone from the “Flat Earth Society” (figure that one out from Pat’s article).
    1. How ironic that Jesus, Adam and Abraham are considered neutral in the Iraqi bloodbath. In Lebanon, those names would’ve surely gotten you stood up against a wall in any number of situations.
    2. The analogy of Iraq with Lebanon is far more understandable–and scary–than trying to make Iraq “another Vietnam”. On the potential quagmire scale, Lebanon makes Vietnam look like an ice rink. We pulled out of Vietnam and, after the obligatory period of Marxist-Lenninist “re-education” and wealth redistribution to the victors, Vietnam was inviting us back in to invest and shameless in its pursuit of American commerce and culture. We pulled out of Lebanon and twenty plus years later the country is still just taking occasional breathers between campaigns of sectarian violence.
    Lebanon is of little importance politically or economically outside of Damascus, Jerusalem and Amman. Iraq is strategically positioned at the throat of the world’s oil, cheek and jowl with a country not only inimical to the west but one who is actively developing a nuclear edge. The idea of Iraq evolving into a Lebanon instead of spawning generations of bewigged Jeffersonian democrats (as we hope) is very scary, indeed.

  • Brenda Stewart

    In all of my 61 years of life, I have never seen such betrayal of life on earth as this group of ppl in politics, as we have in ours today. I am so unhappy with everything they are doing, not only to us as a nation, but to the world, as a whole.

    The cheating lying and greed in all nations on earth today is a sense of that which this government of ours is lying at our feet as citizens of a nation and a world that needs to be coming together to prevent any of the things that is occurring now to never happen…

    This government is turning family members against each other, not only in politics but in religion and in blood that we all share for being human.

    Who will pay for this folly? It will be surely the world in total, on each and ever continent, that is who. When we speak of evil, all we have to do is look into the eyes of the likes of the bush’s, rummy’s, cheney’s of the world and we have our answer.

    Blessed are the peace makers, blessed are the children. The wars and rumors of wars are the begotten of what we have been born into, with these insane and non-credible ppl here on our earth. Yet they call themselves leaders of nations! What ever you call as your God, please have mercy on all of our souls, for the seed of such we are now reaping. What price we all have to pay…

    To determine who and what we must do to change the course of history, is yet for us to say. The hearts of honest and brave souls out here in our presence has yet shown its face to us. Collectively we as a nation and as a ppl must act with intelligence to apprehend this back from being destroyed, forever.

    This is what I really have been wanting to say for a very long time.

    Col. Lang, I can see it didn’t take you very long to come to this idea of what and where we are at today. Remember the languishing times we all had putting a face on this moment in time, of which we are at now?

    Thank you for your sincerity.

  • Leslie
  • Steambomb

    I think this is it. This weekend we crossed over a divide into territory where reprisal is its own reward and death is the automatic price of ancient group enmity in Iraq. It appears to me that random executions based on the mere PROBABILITY that a name indicates communal membership have now become the norm in “sectarian violence”.

    I think you are right Larry. I think this is the malox moment and any news outlet that refuses to state this situation as it is, a civil war, is being neglectful of their journalistic duties.

  • http://profile.typekey.com/mpumpky/ PrchrLady

    Col Lang, I can’t even begin to tell you how deeply this article has touched me. I have followed your writings now since learning of you thru this blog. Your wisdom and knowledge of this matter at evident in the words you write. I thank you for helping to put this whole debacle into some perspective.

    Brenda, your compassion and understanding is expressed very well in the post above. I feel it in the heart, and know that you are a woman filled with love and I know you are blessed. Thank you for saying so many things that I wish I could find the words to write.

    Who will pay??? I hate to always seem like I am on a soapbox, but I guess that’s why I am the prchrlady… Unfortunately, it is always the innocent, yes the children who are bearing the burden of our sins, both individually and collectively as a race. My heart cries out for them and pray that our God will have mercy upon us all for the pain we inflict. I have carried this burden for some time, and it just won’t go away. I don’t even want it to go away until I see that justice is done to those who knowingly are working so diligently to create this abomination in my name.

    Where is the hope? What are we being called to do, or say to help resolve this issue?
    each of us must serch our hearts, and seek our God, if we are to know. The beginning of wisdom is understanding, thus, if we are sincere, in finding the solution (is there one?) we will need to find a way to put a plan into action. Most here,I believe, from what we post, share a faith in a ‘higher power’, and each of us must seek an understanding of what we must do, and then act upon it. The way will be different no doubt for each of us, but somehow I know that we have been given this knowledge as a part of the plan of redemption for the world.

    A problem as complex and as deep as the one we have created in the Middle East will many never be solved in our lifetime. Our actions have compounded and incited a battle that has been brewing for centuries. We opened Pandora’s Box, and now want to try to shove all the demons back in before they destroy us all. In the process, many of the innocents are paying with thier lives. The maniacs that opened the box must pay, because they KNEW exactly what they were doing when they opened it in the first place. All they had to do was actually listen to the wisdom of men like Col Lang, or any number of others. They chose to take the path of war and destruction instead. May they burn in hell forever.

    We are never without hope, no matter how bleak and horrible a situation might be, and I believe that amoung here are those who have idas which can help to restore peace in the region. I do not know how we will be called to use our knowledge, but we are. Fist question? What must be done? What kind of possible solutions can be seen? I pray that the answers will come quickly. I feel time is very short. Peace and Love to All.

  • Mr.Murder

    Lebanon is the end point of the trans-arabian pipeline, it’s still pretty damned important. See also the Golan Heights that overlook it.

  • Thinker

    Thankyou for that post, Larry. But most of you seem to have missed what Patrick Lang was getting at. Sure, he was saying that the concensus (amongst Iraqis) was the people had dignity under Saddam. He may have been a harsh leader, but everyone knew where stood. Also, more interestingly he has defied the US characture (which I acknowledge Larry certainly questions) that Sadam was the ‘root of all evil’, ‘the next Hitler’ and ‘modelled his identity on Stalin’. Where, in fact Patrick writes…”Some Iraqis recall having false identification papers to avoid persecution during Saddam’s rule, but the practice was rare” (now I know he throws in the ‘harsh regime’ disclaimer to be politically correct), but that tells me, as I suspected all along, a relative thimblefull of people were actually being persecuted by Saddam compared with the rubbish churned out by the corporate media machine.

    But that was not the essence of the article. The arcticle was all about “faith” and suposed values. I have noticed amongst members of the Muslim community – good, ordinary folk I have interviewed over a period. I have noticed that the hijab has taken precedence over alms, abstaining from certain foods and not partaking alcohol is far more important than Mohamed’s position on social justice issues. In fact, most of the Muslims I interviewed did NOT HAVE A CLUE where Mohamed stood on many areas of social injustice. So it is no surprise, under a nationalist unit that pretends to be arbritary compassion that those without hijabs, those with particular names are targeted. As this is not about Islam at all. It has become all about empowerment. And I’m afraid a big chunk of the blame should be laid a your door….the United States. In fact, in this crazy situation, the people are behaving precisely as I would expect them to behave and I do not believe the door will ever be shut. In fact, the situation is terrible beyond my worse imagination and I can see no easy end in sight.