Wed 29 Oct 2008
What does victory feel like? What does it look like? How is it measured? Can you taste and smell victory? Americans talk constantly about winning and the words we use contain phrases and words that reference sports and competitive activities. Our words betray us as a flat two dimensional culture that regards winning as the highest aspiration we desire. We show the world a fist pumping thumbs up gesture as the epitome of American worth. This more than any other attribute is what the world see us as. We need to be number one or we feel worthless and defeated. George Bush and his paper cut out minions started two wars based on lies because they envisioned an easy victory. Shielded by the bravery of being out of range they devastated a people and ancient civilized culture all for the glory of victory.
John McCain is blinded by the same juvenile fantasies that he was raised with. He wants to win so badly that he deceives his own spirit. The Surge in Iraq has nothing to do with the drop in violence. What has occurred is the same result from a strategy we employed in Viet Nam. The war in Viet Nam by 1969 was a morass of combat, murder, drug addiction and corruption. We were not winning, we were staying alive for each other. We employed a program called the Cheui Hoi. It was simply a pay off to any enemy combatant who switched sides. We established Kit Carson scouts who worked out with American units. They were paid salaries to lead us to the enemy caches and avoid ambushes. We did not know if we could truly trust someone who had been killing us. Some were double agents.
The Sunni Awakening in Iraq is the same strategy. We are now paying the men who killed us a monthly salary to not kill us. We are paying Moqtada’s Shiite army to lay low. The American tax payer is funding not only it’s own military, but also the mercenary contractors like Blackwater and the Iraqui insurgents. Can we buy victory? Gen. Petraeus and the glory hounds are blinded by the arrogance of American technical superiority. They kill from afar and dismiss the deaths of women and children as “collateral damage”. There is no honor in this and no courage is displayed by men who shy away from the battlefield. John McCain is safe in the rear with the gear now and finds it easy to send mine and his own children into the fire for some false sense of victory. I guess it is harder to stay home and raise your children, fund your schools and libraries properly and teach your children how to be responsible adults. It is easier to pull the trigger than it is to play the guitar or read to your kids.
Dave Ionno
Veteran for peace
