The Iraqi Challenge

Someone forwarded me this YouTube video today entitled "The Iraqi Challenge", on the very same day Bush tried to put more pressure on Congress in his weekly radio address to approve more Iraq war funding. The intent of the video -- and who knows if it's a true depiction of training efforts in Iraq or not -- was probably just to make fun. The form of insurgency displayed against proper Jarhead Jumping Jack protocol is indeed, at first glance, funny. (And I apologize, by the way, for using the semi-derogatory slang but self-imposed term "Jarhead" for the Marines. It was just good alliteration.)

But the video's sub-caption -- "plans to withdraw troops from Iraq delayed until...," coupled with Bush's pressuring today for more funds "to carry out combat operations against the enemy in Afghanistan and Iraq" and, in his very next breath, for "money to train the Afghan and Iraqi security forces to take on more responsibility for the defense of their countries" takes all the humor out of the video. It's just too easy to see how the difficulty of teaching American jumping jacks in Iraq portends something much deeper. The challenge is just too clearly displayed of using our military on their soil to turn what was last week's enemy into this week's security force -- our security force, to be exact. Bringing democracy at the point of a sword cannot be any easier. It's really the impossible challenge of all imperialist forces that have failed no matter how much time and money was pressured out of their people.

If you think about it, almost no one likes being forced to do jumping jacks.

Comments

[wadenelson1]

Lol.

the guy 3rd from the right doing something that's definitely not a jumping jack is hilarious.

[ApolloSpeaks]

Rowley writes:

Bringing democracy at the point of a sword cannot be any easier. It's really the impossible challenge of all imperialist forces that have failed no matter how much time and money was pressured out of their people.

Apollo Speaks:

We used the sword to remove a dangerous dictator from power thus removing the impediments for free popular elections in Iraq. The Iraqi people weren't forced at gunpoint to vote; on the contrary, they were threatened with violence by anti-democratic forces if they did.

Moreover, Iraq is a sovereign nation and not a colony or imperial possession of the United States. This imperial enterprise in Iraq is all in your very silly head.

[Fairfloss]

Are we playing the "San Francisco Chronicle" game?

[kasjuh]

I get steamed whenever I hear we must "fund the troops." It's FUND THE WAR, goddammit.

[SamEllison]

The guy over on the left, the one that looked like he knew what he was doing, better keep an eye on him, he looks like a plant.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Ms. R,

I had no idea you had such a sense of humor.

Best.

[Fairfloss]

I am deeply insulted by your derogatory slanderous term of "Jarhead," towards what you think, in your ignorance, is an American Marine.

I detect a British accent doing the call out and that could be any where, not necessarily Iraq, not necessarily a true training session.
You are an American hater, a military hater and a President Bush hater. This leaves your credibility, null and void.

Now that the American military, are achieving a goodly measure of success in Iraq, the haters come out to demean them.
We are seeing you all for what you truly are.
Anti-American, cruel, cold-blooded haters and you want America to lose the war.
Makes one wonder who our true enemies are.