When people taste freedom for the first time, their reaction is almost always the same.
They loot.
They did it in Indonesia. They did it in Serbia. Now they’re doing it in Iraq.
Already, the talking heads are condemning the U.S. for delivering “chaos” to Iraq, only a day after civilians greeted U.S. troops with flowers and kisses in central Baghdad.
It proved hasty to point fingers at Donald Rumsfeld when the war seemed like it might be bogging down in the desert. Cynics shouldn’t be so quick to point fingers again.
Rumsfeld and Tommy Franks proved to the armchair generals that they knew what they were doing on the battlefield. This time, they may prove that they know what they’re doing when it comes to dealing with civil unrest.
We’re putting our money on Franks and Rumsfeld. If it’s winning hearts and minds that you want to do, then hassling looters isn’t the best way to go about it. We’re wondering what the morally self-righteous are thinking when they suggest that the U.S. immediately “crack down” on looting.
Yeah, great idea, let’s order U.S. troops to fire on crowds of jubilant Iraqis taking swivel back chairs and bathroom fixtures.
U.S. soldiers, believe it or not, are professionals. They didn’t come this far without some foreknowledge of how to deal with post-liberation “festivities.” And just about anybody that prides realpolitik over political correctness knows better than to get between a new Microwave and a guy that’s been living under repression for the last 30 years.
The Iraqis are releasing decades of pent up frustrations. Better they take them out on Saddam’s palaces and Baath Party offices, and not on U.S. troops.
Robbing hospitals of vital supplies is plain wrong, and U.S. troops should put a stop to that shit ASAP.
But let the people have Saddam’s old furniture and assorted knick-knacks. Stores will surely fill up again. No one is really stealing here. The stuff belongs to the Iraqi people anyway. Saddam bought it all with their money.
Let the looting continue. Maybe someone will save us a nice flat screen TV.
