An unassuming peasant woman runs up, and tosses a hand grenade into a chopper full of wounded GI’s.
In the film Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola showed us what happened in Vietnam when American soldiers crossed over the fine line that separates liberator from invader.
American and British soldiers recently crossed that line in Iraq.
The war is just two weeks old, and U.S. armor is already knocking on Baghdad’s front door.
The Marines planned to roll up to it unchallenged, bypassing major cities and towns while singing “this is my rifle, this is my gun, this is for fightn’, this is for fun” all the way.
Unfortunately, things didn’t work out like that.
American and British troops have faced stiff resistance in most cities and towns. Heavy fighting continues throughout much of southern Iraq. Instead of turning Basra and Nasiriyah over to friendlies and moving on as planned, the U.S. and Royal Marines have been forced to encircle and shell them. That doesn’t bode well for post-war pleasantries.
And it’s post-war that’s most important in Iraq.
What’s happening now, the isolated incidents that seem bigger than they really are because they’re broadcast into your living room in alleged real time are part of any war; always have been, always will be.
Whether its Fedayeen Saddam and “paramilitaries” or just pissed off civvies with AK-47’s, folks tend to fight dirty when they feel threatened.
So do U.S. soldiers, after a suicide bomber incinerates their buddies at a checkpoint.
On the battlefield, survival precludes tolerance. Ideals that inspire wars usually don’t make it past the first firefight.
In this war, they haven’t made it past the terribly misleading headlines and sound bites either.
We agreed with Donald Rumsfeld when he told reporters that it’s a “bit early for history to be written.” He was defending his “Force Lite” strategy, which we don’t think he had to do.
Militarily speaking, the outcome of this war has always been a forgone conclusion.
Not so clear anymore is what happens after the shooting stops. Given that this war, like all wars, has degenerated into a battle of ‘us vs. them,’ the U.S. will be hard pressed in the battle to win Iraqi hearts and minds.
In Vietnam, America’s “apocalypse” wasn’t caused by the immediate shock and awe of the war itself.
It resulted from the eventual realization that war, with its dehumanizing tendencies has never been the best way to convince people that you come in peace.
