Misanthropy

When Operation Iraqi Freedom began in mid March of 2003 I was excited. The excitement carried through for a few weeks as our seemingly invincible military forces pushed forward towards Baghdad. Let me stop there for a moment to clarify some things.

I am not an ignorant, closed-minded, uneducated, uninformed warmongering fool – though some of you may disagree. I was not ambivalent about this war despite the outcry and accusations that sprang forth from the beginning, and I honestly did not care what the official reason was, whether or not Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. He did at one point and he used them. That’s not debatable. Granted, I’m surprised that we did not fake finding the WMD just to further our cause and increase worldwide support but that’s another story. The bottom line was that Hussein needed to be removed from power. He was the bad guy.

We rolled into Baghdad virtually unopposed and met very little resistance, which was a good thing. I’m sure that came as a surprise to some considering all the propaganda bullshit that was being spouted off by the Iraqi Minister of (Dis)Information and Al-Jazeera. Whatever.

Twenty-one days later, on April 9th coalition forces rolled into Baghdad and helped tear down the statue of Hussein. The citizens were overjoyed and beat the statue with their shoes (apparently one of the most severe insults they can dish out). Things were great up until then, then it got worse and has gone downhill since.

There came a point when in the papers, and this was only a month later up until today, that our boys were being killed left and right. Not in big groups, just a few here and there from resistance forces, people seemingly acting alone, suicide bombers, etc. The numbers continued to add up and as the days passed the names faded from the papers and became statistics. At one point I thought, “Hey this probably isn’t that great of an idea anymore.” The administration was steadfast, we were not leaving until we had Hussein and liberated the Iraqi people.

Fast-forward several months to December. Casualties were still mounting though we had some breakthroughs. Apparently, not all of our soldiers were equipped with body armor, and not all of the Hum-vees were equipped with armor. Thus the reason for higher than expected casualties. Now how the hell did this happen? We’re the most technologically advanced country/military in the world and we’re facing these types of problems? That’s really unacceptable and there’s no valid reason for this. Especially if you’re a conspiracies and believe Bush had this planned when he was elected.

Anyway, some good headlines appeared every now and then, such as capturing/killing high ranking officials that were listed on the elaborate deck-of-cards that was handed out. When this happened some of us would forget that our soldiers were dying out there, even if just for a moment. Then there was a breakthrough. Hussein was captured in mid December – without a shot being fired. This was the most anticlimactic event in history EVER. It was out of the media within a week. To this day there’s virtually no talk about it anymore. I don’t know what the hell they’re doing. Once again people rejoiced and danced and did whatever they do with their shoes and all was good, except for the daily attacks on our troops.

Fast-forward again to recent weeks. A poll was conducted and close to half of the Iraqi’s are glad they’re free but say life is worse now than it was when Hussein ruled. Some odd percent say they wish Hussein was still around. Meanwhile it seems that the natives were growing weary of the occupying force and national support back home was going down the shitter. As if it was ever high to begin with.

I suppose shortly after Hussein was captured I started to feel that this war was dragging on for much longer than need be and that we were alone in our cause.

I’m rambling, let me get to the point here. After the recent abuse scandal and more surprisingly the acknowledgement, by high ranking military/intelligence officials, of a separate, secret interrogation facility the image of America and Americans has been totally destroyed. Personally, I know we’re better than that; unfortunately people only seem to remember the bad things.
I don’t care who did it or why but it was an amazingly stupid idea to take pictures and then make them accessible. I mean how stupid do you have to be? I’ll spare you my personal feelings on whether or not the abuse was warranted. This is war. Keep in mind the soldiers that are serving over there. A majority of them are young, not veterans, not much experience. You need to view things from their point of view. They’re in a foreign country; their friends are dying daily, they could be next. The week when most of this occurred was a highly tragic one for our forces. A Chinook helicopter was shot down and all onboard were lost. Many other soldiers were killed. The atmosphere was grim; these kids were scared. They were told to do whatever was necessary to get more information, so the easiest and simplest thing that came to mind is what they did.

After reading some of the eyewitness accounts of the actual abuse I began to get concerned. Not so much that I felt bad for the prisoners, because I don’t. More so that any of this happened. I’m not dumb; I know stuff like this happens behind closed doors. I’m shocked it got out into the public. It saddens me because now I am feeling ashamed to be an American and that our image has been tarnished, if not destroyed. I can’t justify harsh punishment of the soldiers who were involved; they were doing their job.

I was listening to a song the other day, “Real American” or something like that. It used to be Hulk Hogan’s theme music. Some of the lyrics go like “I am a real American, fight for the rights of any man…” and I thought, “Well shit, now that’s fucked.” Anyone who hears that is going to call foul. It seems as if democracy seems to be failing here and I’m not sure why. Obviously all good things must come to an end, but when I start feeling ashamed to be labeled American, things are pretty fucking bad. I’m one of the more patriotic people in this country so it’s easier for me to justify certain things.

If we were to call it quits and pull our forces out immediately it would still take beyond forever to rebuild our image. No amount of humanitarian aid and rebuilding and aiding other countries is going to help. There’s nothing we can really do at this point. Everyone says Bush sucks and he needs to go. Granted things aren’t great, because of him. Who the hell else is going to do a better job though? Gore? He’ll claim he founded Iraq and he’s the true leader, or some shit.

I don’t forsee things changing anytime soon. Even with this new possibly U.N. approved multinational force our troops are still there for another year or more. More casualties, more tarnishing of the American image. To be an American is no longer what it means anymore and it’s depressing. To top it off, Congress proposed a bill to be able to override any rulings the Supreme Court makes. That’s just absurd and if it ever gets passed it’s time to move to Canada.

Thanks for listening to this. The article didn’t go the way I had planned. I lost concentration and was unable to get it back. Please leave a comment or send me an e-mail. Whatever. I want to hear other folks’ opinions on the situation.