Author: R J Adams

Ever since the Iraq war began there has been a cry from the heart of America. It began as a whimper, link but has been steadily growing in volume until today that cry can be heard throughout the nation. It is a cry from the lips of mothers, malady fathers, order wives, sons and daughters. It is a cry from the lips of all who hate the very idea of war; the festering sore that tears at our humanity.

The cry rang out loudly at the last elections when Republicans were trounced in the polls and the Democrats promised Americans the earth, but reneged as soon as they attained office. But the cry can still be heard, and most Americans believe that one day – some day – the politicians will have to listen.

“Bring The Troops Back Home!”

Sparrow Chat has written on more than one occasion of the unlikelihood of that cry ever being acknowledged by those in power. While frequently indicating the desire for an American withdrawal, there have been no illusions on these pages as to the probability. No-one builds an embassy the size of Vatican City only to leave it to the desert sands.

Every article written here, expressing that view, has evoked total silence from commentators not wishing to accept the possibility it might be true. Those who have spent months and years in stressful protestation, endured insult and sometimes physical abuse in the pursuit of peace, have a right to expect their voice will be heard; that, when enough are gathered to the cause in a democratic society, their wishes will be acted on.

Sparrow Chat has always maintained they will be ignored. The troops will not come home from Iraq. They will remain to ensure the safety of the oil men; they will die to keep the pipelines intact.

America is no longer a democracy. It makes little difference who is voted into office, the policies will always be the same.

At times it has seemed a lonely stance, when all around are calling for withdrawal, celebrating political change, dancing to a Democrat tune; to stand, apparently alone, hardly daring to suggest the calls, celebrations, dances were nothing but a wasted effort.

Now, it seems there are others daring to make a similar suggestion. Sparrow Chat is no longer isolated in thinking the unthinkable.

It brings no joy, no welling of an inner satisfaction. Only a dim hope, a forlorn desire to be wrong:

Filed under: Imperial America

“”Coalition Forces attack helicopters engaged and killed 17 al-Qaeda gunmen southwest of Khalis, Friday.

Iraqi police were conducting security operations in and around the village when Coalition attack helicopters from the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade and ground forces from 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, observed more than 15 armed men attempting to circumvent the IPs and infiltrate the village.

The attack helicopters, armed with missiles, engaged and killed 17 al-Qaeda gunmen and destroyed the vehicle they were using.”

The above is an account by the US military of an attack on al Qaeda militants in the village of al-Khalis, north of Baquba on June 22nd. It was widely reported by western news media as a successful mission.

Jim Muir, a reporter for the BBC has discovered a somewhat different story:

“…….villagers in largely-Shia al-Khalis say that those who died had nothing to do with al-Qaeda. They say they were local village guards trying to protect the township from exactly the kind of attack by insurgents the US military says it foiled.

They say that of 16 guards, 11 were killed and five others injured – two of them seriously – when US helicopters fired rockets at them and then strafed them with heavy machinegun fire.

They added that the guards, lightly armed with the AK47 assault rifles that are a feature of practically every home in Iraq, were essentially a local neighbourhood watch paid by the village to monitor the dangerous insurgent-ridden area to the immediate south-west at Arab Shawkeh and Hibhib, where the al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed a year ago.”

This is not the first time western military tales of success have turned out to be false. In fact, piecing together the jigsaw of stories to emerge, both from Iraq and Afghanistan, reveals not the experienced, high class, well disciplined, US military held in such high regard by the American people, but a disorganized, badly led, undisciplined bunch of trigger-happy renegades with no experience of guerrilla warfare, unreliable intelligence, often inept leadership and little regard for the civilians they are supposed to protect.

American troops may be well versed in riding roughshod over the enemy on an open battlefield, where superior technology and firepower cannot fail to win the day, but in the closed combat arena of inner city guerrilla warfare the US military is totally out of its depth.

In this sense, America’s leaders have failed miserably to learn the lessons of Vietnam. Jungle warfare and urban guerrilla warfare are tactically very similar. The prime reason America lost so many troops in Vietnam was their enemy’s total superiority in close-quarter, jungle warfare. US soldiers are suffering a similar fate in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Unable to win against superior fighters, the military continues to fall back on all it knows, the use of air power and heavy armament. Such weapons, particularly when coupled with poor intelligence, more often than not result in heavy civilian casualties while the more experienced enemy combatants melt away to regroup and fight another day.

Winning the hearts and minds of a local population, vital to any chance of success on either front, is not going to happen while they are being regularly slaughtered by those charged with their protection.

The inability of the US military to fight an efficient war under such circumstances, particularly in Iraq, has the result of merely complicating an already complex situation. It is hard to envisage that situation ever improving while the US military is still involved there.

As occurred in Vietnam, the only sane conclusion to be drawn is for the US military to accept defeat and get out.

Jim Muir’s report is worth reading. It can be found HERE.

Filed under: Botched

“Who am I? The eternal Question. Have not figured it out fully yet. All you need to know about me is that I am a Middle Easterner, an Arab Woman – into my 40’s and old enough to know better. I have no homeland per se. I live in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Egypt simultaneously …. All the rest is icing on the cake.”

Read Layla Anwar: “An Arab Woman Blues – Reflections in a sealed bottle…..”

NOTE: the above link does not open correctly in Firefox and is better viewed in IE.

Filed under: Suffering