Written with eloquence and common sense, this is still one of the most disturbing articles I have read on the conflict in Iraq.
The author presents the issues involved in what is labeled "preemptive war" and, in my opinion, in this case, rattles the accepted reasoning as to why we became engaged in the situation now unravelling in Iraq.
The author's late husband's observations about the Iraqis chillingly remind me of some observations from a 4th century historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, on the Arabs of the time : "They are savage and warlike.They take pleasure in war. The one who loses his life in battle is regarded as happy beyond all others.Those who die a natural death are called cowards and degenerates."
The Arabs, unfortunately, have not evolved as civilized people, and the American presence is not likely to change this fact.
This article has affected me more intensely than anything I can recall in a long time, and should be food for thought for any concerned reader and policy maker.
MFB
Reprinted from "Still Learning"
Two Sides,
By Cat Estanol
I have strong feelings about war. If you have read my blogs before, you know why. If you haven’t I will tell you briefly that I lost my husband in Iraq.
Another blogger, whom I read faithfully, wrote a compelling piece about war. Pre-emptive offense, to be specific, something I call war instead of offense. His blog can be found at http://www.ronmossad.com/ and the blog is “Why We Fight, In Defense of Pre-Emptive Offense.” All of his entries are worth your time whether or not you agree with him. You should read this one though. It is provocative.
I think you learn more when you listen to dissenting positions. If you hear both sides of an argument I believe you can make a better decision on your stance and you may even decide that you are somewhere in between.
War, specifically the War in Iraq, the reasons for war in general, and the reasons for the war in Iraq has occupied my thoughts since losing my husband. I have read a lot. I have read a lot of justifications, a lot of lies, a lot of stupidity. In my mind I think I know what happened, but I will never really know why or if I am right. In reading, I became obsessed with the idea that Iraq had not attacked us. Crazy people attacked us, not a country, not Iraq, just crazy angry people from several different countries. None of them were from Iraq and we all know now the idea that Iraq had ties with al Qaeda was a lie. We started a war with another country for no apparent reason and without provocation. I say “no apparent reason” because that target keeps moving and was moving at the time we invaded. Do we really know why we went? It was specifically a pre-emptive war. A strike by the US to stop something we thought might happen. I have linked to a pretty good discussion on Preemptive War and International Law. One interesting passage I found was this.
The most widely accepted modern standard for anticipatory self-defense was articulated by U.S. Secretary of State Daniel Webster in diplomatic correspondence with his British counterpart over the Caroline incident (often mischaracterized as the Caroline "case") and consisted of two prongs. One was that the need to use force in anticipatory self-defense must first rise to the level of being a necessity, and one that is instant, overwhelming, and leaving no choice of means and no moment for deliberation. The other requirement was that the action taken must be proportionate to the threat and not be excessive.
The blog I linked to from my friend Ron Mossad does a very good job of justifying actions according to the first part of this passage. He is speaking in global terms though. My interest is specifically in the War in Iraq and the need for a preemptive war there. According to the passage above Iraq did not meet the criteria of “being a necessity, and one that is instant, overwhelming, and leaving no choice of means and no moment for deliberation “. We deliberated, we cajoled, and we looked for allies. It was not instant. The argument completely falls apart when you look at our response to vague provocation. It was not proportionate to the threat. We took out an entire country and its government and we never could decide on why we felt we had to do this.
I hate the idea of a pre-emptive war ever. I am including a response to his blog that I sent to him. His blog made me angry. I disagreed with it from the start. I understand his arguments so I sent a response, a pretty guttural one. Days have passed and now I think about it differently. His was a global view and mine was a more personal one. His is a valuable point of view in that it sees the larger picture beyond the individual. Mine is more personal. It is the real cost of war, any war.
Here is what I wrote:
I read your blog. Your logic was flawless and your arguments powerful. That is what I have come to expect from you. I just don't know what to do from here. Do we go bomb the shit out of every country that threatens us? Venezuela? Iran? North Korea? Somalia? Where does it stop? How big will our military forces have to be? Will waging war become our primary business? Peacekeeper to the world? Our way or we blow the hell out of you?
Why did we go to Iraq and overrun their country when the threats came from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Pakistan? Shouldn't we have gone there instead?Because Saddam had been talking bad about us? The ENTIRE world talks bad about us from one day to the next. Do we take out the entire world? Where does it stop?
Having a gun pointed directly in someone's face is colorful but not a practical analogy. Or maybe it is. I don't know. What if the gun is not loaded? What if it is fucking Ashton Kutcher and you are being Punk’d? What if it isn't really your wife? What if you don't have good information about the entire situation? You have what you believe but don't really know. Then you kill someone who wasn't really a threat after all? Who is the wrong one and who is the wronged one?
Luis, my husband, a fallen Marine, wrote this to me exactly one month before he died:
"You asked what was wrong on cam. You always know when things are not right with me. I can't hide anything from you. What’s bothering me is I grew up my whole life hearing about glorious wars fought by my family. We were all Marines. It's the family business. We always knew I would serve. I was honored to serve. You knew it. You say you are proud of me in every letter, in every email and on cam. I read about wars and battles all my life. I thought I was prepared. I wanted to make you proud of your Marine.
"Here I am at war for real and I am fighting an enemy not even in uniforms. This is my war. I am not fighting a war to conquer a people or a country. I am fighting an enemy who is invisible and can fade into a crowd of people and disappear while we stand there in uniform with targets on our backs. I fight an enemy who hopes to gain nothing from this war but my death and maybe his own. All they want is death. What kind of people are these? When they aren't killing us they are killing each other. This is insanity. There are no lofty goals. There isn't even a good fucking reason. We want them to stop killing people so we kill them? They don't even care. Kill them. Kill their wives. Kill their kids. Help yourself. They don't fucking care. Here's my mother shoot her while I hide behind her!
"When you send a Marine to war he needs to know what he is fighting for. I don't. When you go to war you need to feel that your actions will make a difference. I don't. When you go to war you know that if you get the job done the world will be a better place. I don't feel it will. We don't know what the job is at least I don't and no one can explain it to me. We don't know what we are fighting for. We don't even know who the fuck we are fighting. We can't even identify the enemy. I get so angry all I want to do is step outside the walls and start shooting anything that moves until it stops and we can go home. I can't see any way out of this. As far as I can tell there is no end. How do we know when we are done? We already took out the government and that should be it but it isn't. This is a stick in a hornet's nest. They just keep coming and hating.
"I pray all the time now, Babe. I pray so much I don't know if He is listening anymore. The more I kill the more I don't feel it. Babe, I just need to get back to you and let you make this all go away for me. You can make this go away. We had all these plans but all I want now is to see you and hold you. If I can get back to you everything will be okay again. I love you so much. I can't wait to make you fat with babies. Life will be good then. I don't mean to dump this on you but I had to say it and you asked. I want to hold you so bad right now. It hurts to look at your picture."
There is war for you on a very, very personal level. I've never shared it with anyone before but I could recite it to you from memory. This is why I look for reasons. That is war. That is how we fight wars now. War doesn't work anymore. There are no rules, no uniforms, no battlefields, no objectives. The only thing that has worked, the ONLY thing, is paying them bribes so they stop shooting at us. Bribery has no place in war. Eventually you have to stop paying and then they start shooting again. It's a stupid waste of resources. Wars don't work anymore. Don't you get it? You need a better solution. Making a case for pre-emptive wars is pure bullshit.
That’s my response, so you decide.
posted by cat at 5:05 pm
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