Occupational Hazards in Iraq
It's not just a job...it's an adventure.
Or, it was in the 1980s when the Cold War held us frozen in a strangely intangible struggle with Soviet Commies. There was real fear of war with the Soviets...a ground war in Europe, that is...and we also had the looming reality of Mutually Assured Destruction. But our widely dispersed military was meant to deter our foe...not engage it. Nor did we do much "occupying." We were "guests" on NATO soil, or of petty dictatorships we supported as bulwarks against Godless Communism. Our global reach in deterring the Commie menace meant soldiers did get "adventure" in the form of deployments to exotic places like South Korea, Germany, Italy and the Philippines. Shooting, invasion and house to house searches were not likely. In fact, the post-Vietnam military rarely was adventurous, save lame duck Grenada and an ill-advised sojourn in Beirut.
The irony is that the "adventure" of specialized training followed by exotic deployments in Europe and Asia was, in fact, a job. A good job. The stagflation of the late 70s and early 80s, the difficulty in paying for college for so many poor, working and middle-class kids...these factors converged with the Reagan build-up and its goal of forcing the Soviets' hand. The all-volunteer military was a way out of the dead-ends of urban decay, rural myopia and suburban burger flipping. It was a job, sold as an adventure.
Although the economy "recovered" and "grew," failed again during Poppy Bush's tenure and then "recovered" and "grew" again during Bubba Clinton...the imprint of the 80s build-up was indelible. Military service was a way out, offered techincal training and promised college money to those who couldn't afford it otherwise. It also corralled hundreds of thousands of former active duty and wannabe weekend warriors into Reserve and Guard units. For a people growing accustomed to working multiple jobs to make ends meet, it was an easy and patriotic way to get by. The ranks of the Guard and Reserves swelled.
But then the "adventure" part kicked in.
Poppy's Gulf War was the first, but it was a cake walk. Most of those killed were in friendly fire incidents, we had a world of support...literally, the whole damn world joined us...and there wasn't even a hint of occupation. Those soldiers' job was not an occupation...it was pure liberation. They did not fall victim to the hazards of occupation.
Then came W.
Now, those weekend warriors, young men and women seeking a way out and up and those military professionals who have served long enough to remember when the task was to deter, not to invade...they all have found out that their occupation is, indeed, an adventure. Or, more precisely, adventurism.
Now they find that their occupation is, well, an occupation...an ethical quagmire of control and domination of another people...in a land with a strikingly different language, different religion and culture. A country that lived through a decade of bombings and sanctions by those who now sell occupation as freedom and liberation and democracy.
They are wholly unprepared to live...and to fight to live...in a foreign land, coping with a hostile people who don't particularly care for being occupied. Sorta like Vietnam, or the West Bank and Gaza. Or like the Japanese faced in the Philippines and the Germans did with the French Resistance.
Although, the World War II analogies are flawed. No real internal strife. The Allies really were liberators who turned over whole countries to the people who lived there. And there was another occupying force being ejected...an enemy for the locals to despise...either German or Japanese.
No, the most precise analogy is the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. And what we've seen over the last two decades is that an occupation of a people is dehumanizing. Dehumanizing to the occupied and to the occupier. We saw it in Vietnam, too. The "Strategic Hamlet" policy, destroying a village to "save" it from the Commies, the inherent racism that develops in troops as they are overwhelmed by a confusing, foreign environment in which enemies and allies are hard to discern. The Vietnamese became "Gooks" and atrocities started to mount as the years of occupation wore on.
But the American people are, conversely, quite removed from the occupational hazards our men and women face everyday in an Iraq coming apart at the seams. But we've had glimpses of just how dehumanizing military occupation is to both the Iraqis and our military. Abu Ghraib is the obvious example.
But it is those little, everyday ways that we don't see in our mainstream media maw that show just how dehumanizing occupation can be.
Incipient racism develops. Both major and minor cruelties occur in the cause of daily survival. Those cruelties emerge out of the frustration and the callousness that long-term deployment must create...the disassociation of one's basic humanity in a conflict with no rhyme or reason and no end in sight.
Cruelties like this:
It's disheartening to see Iraqi children toyed with for a momentary laugh, filmed by the perpetrators so they can laugh again later...back in the confines of the rarified world of the basecamp. Posted on the internet, it offers a glimpse into what must be dozen of incidents just like this everyday as kids...yes, 19-21 year-old soldiers are essentially kids...try to cope with the occupation of occupation. It is not an excuse, it's a truism. Occupation is hazardous to both the occupier and the occupied.
That is putting aside the fact that Iraqi children would clamor so desperately for a simple bottle of water. What that says about the Iraq we've created...our creative destruction...is just as horrific as the daily abuse the occupied Iraqis must feel simply from having foreign soldiers cruising their streets.
And it does get worse. The Brits, too, are falling victim to the dehumanization their presence in Iraq must have on British soldiers:
The glorified beating of young Iraqis, cheered while one particular boy screams for mercy, is tainting all of those involved...the soldiers doing the beating, the soldiers cheering and the soldiers filming it, or standing-by doing nothing to stop it. Think of those children...either chasing a highly-valued bottle of water, or being beaten mercilessly for throwing rocks...think of the generational fury we've created within them. Think of the orphans we've created, or those who have had soldiers storm into their homes in the dead of night. Or seen their father harassed or killed at a checkpoint. Their humanity is at stake...and their dignity is being bound up in feelings of revenge and hatred.
And then there are our soldiers. Vietnam's inherent cruelties created a generation of mental health problems. Suicides, homelessness, drug abuse. The men who suffered through the Strategic Hamlet program, the daily inhumanity of that war...they were scarred for life. Now we have two generations...the young Regulars and the older Reservists and Guard...who will come back after multiple deployments bearing the scars of their occupation. The scars of occupation. The price paid for greedy adventurism.
Or, it was in the 1980s when the Cold War held us frozen in a strangely intangible struggle with Soviet Commies. There was real fear of war with the Soviets...a ground war in Europe, that is...and we also had the looming reality of Mutually Assured Destruction. But our widely dispersed military was meant to deter our foe...not engage it. Nor did we do much "occupying." We were "guests" on NATO soil, or of petty dictatorships we supported as bulwarks against Godless Communism. Our global reach in deterring the Commie menace meant soldiers did get "adventure" in the form of deployments to exotic places like South Korea, Germany, Italy and the Philippines. Shooting, invasion and house to house searches were not likely. In fact, the post-Vietnam military rarely was adventurous, save lame duck Grenada and an ill-advised sojourn in Beirut.
The irony is that the "adventure" of specialized training followed by exotic deployments in Europe and Asia was, in fact, a job. A good job. The stagflation of the late 70s and early 80s, the difficulty in paying for college for so many poor, working and middle-class kids...these factors converged with the Reagan build-up and its goal of forcing the Soviets' hand. The all-volunteer military was a way out of the dead-ends of urban decay, rural myopia and suburban burger flipping. It was a job, sold as an adventure.
Although the economy "recovered" and "grew," failed again during Poppy Bush's tenure and then "recovered" and "grew" again during Bubba Clinton...the imprint of the 80s build-up was indelible. Military service was a way out, offered techincal training and promised college money to those who couldn't afford it otherwise. It also corralled hundreds of thousands of former active duty and wannabe weekend warriors into Reserve and Guard units. For a people growing accustomed to working multiple jobs to make ends meet, it was an easy and patriotic way to get by. The ranks of the Guard and Reserves swelled.
But then the "adventure" part kicked in.
Poppy's Gulf War was the first, but it was a cake walk. Most of those killed were in friendly fire incidents, we had a world of support...literally, the whole damn world joined us...and there wasn't even a hint of occupation. Those soldiers' job was not an occupation...it was pure liberation. They did not fall victim to the hazards of occupation.
Then came W.
Now, those weekend warriors, young men and women seeking a way out and up and those military professionals who have served long enough to remember when the task was to deter, not to invade...they all have found out that their occupation is, indeed, an adventure. Or, more precisely, adventurism.
Now they find that their occupation is, well, an occupation...an ethical quagmire of control and domination of another people...in a land with a strikingly different language, different religion and culture. A country that lived through a decade of bombings and sanctions by those who now sell occupation as freedom and liberation and democracy.
They are wholly unprepared to live...and to fight to live...in a foreign land, coping with a hostile people who don't particularly care for being occupied. Sorta like Vietnam, or the West Bank and Gaza. Or like the Japanese faced in the Philippines and the Germans did with the French Resistance.
Although, the World War II analogies are flawed. No real internal strife. The Allies really were liberators who turned over whole countries to the people who lived there. And there was another occupying force being ejected...an enemy for the locals to despise...either German or Japanese.
No, the most precise analogy is the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. And what we've seen over the last two decades is that an occupation of a people is dehumanizing. Dehumanizing to the occupied and to the occupier. We saw it in Vietnam, too. The "Strategic Hamlet" policy, destroying a village to "save" it from the Commies, the inherent racism that develops in troops as they are overwhelmed by a confusing, foreign environment in which enemies and allies are hard to discern. The Vietnamese became "Gooks" and atrocities started to mount as the years of occupation wore on.
But the American people are, conversely, quite removed from the occupational hazards our men and women face everyday in an Iraq coming apart at the seams. But we've had glimpses of just how dehumanizing military occupation is to both the Iraqis and our military. Abu Ghraib is the obvious example.
But it is those little, everyday ways that we don't see in our mainstream media maw that show just how dehumanizing occupation can be.
Incipient racism develops. Both major and minor cruelties occur in the cause of daily survival. Those cruelties emerge out of the frustration and the callousness that long-term deployment must create...the disassociation of one's basic humanity in a conflict with no rhyme or reason and no end in sight.
Cruelties like this:
It's disheartening to see Iraqi children toyed with for a momentary laugh, filmed by the perpetrators so they can laugh again later...back in the confines of the rarified world of the basecamp. Posted on the internet, it offers a glimpse into what must be dozen of incidents just like this everyday as kids...yes, 19-21 year-old soldiers are essentially kids...try to cope with the occupation of occupation. It is not an excuse, it's a truism. Occupation is hazardous to both the occupier and the occupied.
That is putting aside the fact that Iraqi children would clamor so desperately for a simple bottle of water. What that says about the Iraq we've created...our creative destruction...is just as horrific as the daily abuse the occupied Iraqis must feel simply from having foreign soldiers cruising their streets.
And it does get worse. The Brits, too, are falling victim to the dehumanization their presence in Iraq must have on British soldiers:
The glorified beating of young Iraqis, cheered while one particular boy screams for mercy, is tainting all of those involved...the soldiers doing the beating, the soldiers cheering and the soldiers filming it, or standing-by doing nothing to stop it. Think of those children...either chasing a highly-valued bottle of water, or being beaten mercilessly for throwing rocks...think of the generational fury we've created within them. Think of the orphans we've created, or those who have had soldiers storm into their homes in the dead of night. Or seen their father harassed or killed at a checkpoint. Their humanity is at stake...and their dignity is being bound up in feelings of revenge and hatred.
And then there are our soldiers. Vietnam's inherent cruelties created a generation of mental health problems. Suicides, homelessness, drug abuse. The men who suffered through the Strategic Hamlet program, the daily inhumanity of that war...they were scarred for life. Now we have two generations...the young Regulars and the older Reservists and Guard...who will come back after multiple deployments bearing the scars of their occupation. The scars of occupation. The price paid for greedy adventurism.
posted by Josophist at 7:56 AM
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