Happy Anniversary
Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq - Five years ago tonight I was desperately running around Erbil, de facto capital of the Kurdish autonomous region, looking for a translator. The war was due to start any minute and I had yet to find someone competent enough to do the job for me. My assignment was to follow the overthrow of Saddam through the eyes of someone who had suffered under the dictator for the public radio program Inside Out. That night I met Ahmad Shawkat who became my translator, then the subject of my documentary and ultimately my guide into the heart of Iraq. Ahmad, a kurdish native of Mosul, was living in internal exile in Erbil. There was no question I had for which he did not have a detailed and plausible answer.
Then he was murdered. Having survived a quarter of a century of Saddam's totalitarian regime and several visits to his torture chambers he started a weekly newspaper of political and cultural ideas in the new era and got gunned down for his trouble.
With his death I lost my source of answers to the questions that have piled up over the last few years. While in Erbil recently to do some anniversary reporting I found myself running through some of the questions that have come up over the last five years that I would have loved to ask him. Instead I ask them here, any answers gratefully received.
1. Everyone acknowledges that the situation in Iraq got completely out of control in the first week of April 2004 when, just as U.S. forces were getting ready to crack down on Moqtada al-Sadr, four Blackwater contractors were murdered in broad daylight in the center of Fallujah, their corpses mutilated and hung from a bridge. The Marines were sent in to the town and flattened it, but their tactical victory ended up being a strategic one for the insurgents because it forced them into other parts of the country and created images that became recruiting posters.
My question: what the hell were the Blackwater guys doing in Fallujah in the first place? And, as they are private contractors, why was it the Marines' job to avenge their deaths by destroying a city?
2. In the summer of 2006 Israel went to war with Hizbollah in southern Lebanon. The Bush administration used the war to blame Iran and Syria for arming Hizbollah. But how did all those Iranian missiles and other forms of mullah-made ordnance, some of it of a quite recent vintage get to Syria to be shipped on to southern Lebanon? A look at the map shows there is a rather large country called Iraq between the two.
My question: If we assume that the arms shipments weren't flown over Iraq -- because the U.S. Air Force would shoot down any Iranian plane in Iraqi air space -- does this mean that throughout the U.S. occupation large quantities of arms to be used against Israel were shipped by road from Iran to Syria under the noses of American troops?
3. The day Saddam's regime collapsed in Mosul, I returned with Ahmad Shawkat to his home town. He had been telling me for weeks how wonderful a place it was and promised to take me to a restaurant on the banks of the Tigris and have a fish lunch. Instead, we got caught up in a gun fight in Diwassa Square, the heart of downtown. The National Bank was being looted and Arabs and Kurds were shooting it out. Precisely a year later I went to the same place with my late friend's daughter, herself a journalist, to reminisce about that day. While we were talking, she pointed at a young man about ten feet away being rousted by the police. This youth suddenly reached into his pocket took out a grenade and threw it at the cops, the ensuing explosion followed by indiscriminate shooting could have been the end of us. We were lucky to escape unharmed. On this current trip when I saw my friend's daughter in Erbil I asked about going to Mosul. She told me that now no American civilian can walk in the streets of that city at all. This time there would be no near misses, death was certain.
My question: when will it be possible again for an American to walk through the streets of Mosul (or indeed any city in Iraq)? Will I live long enough to eat a fish lunch in memory of my friend on the banks of the Tigris?
Michael Goldfarb's radio documentary on Kurdistan today will air on the BBC World Service starting next Tuesday.
Read more HuffPost coverage and reaction to the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Michael asked: "My question: what the hell were the Blackwater guys doing in Fallujah in the first place? And, as they are private contractors, why was it the Marines' job to avenge their deaths by destroying a city? "
My answer: 1.) The Blackwater guys think that once America has invaded a country, that safety and security is a matter of course, just like back in the home country. 2.) The brave marines were so used to little opposition to their sheer show of force that they think they are bullet proof and can do whatever they choose; so they think very little about flattening an occupied country's township to avenge the deaths of the four Blackwater guys just like the Nazis did in the Second World War. That their actions help recruit more enemies against America never crossed their minds. American soldiers are notorious for their "shoot first at anything that moves and ask questions later" that any enemy will do the same to all Americans. However, when they do, they are labelled "Terrorists" but the same deeds done by Americans are called, "Collateral damage". There is no difference in that people are killed but that American lives are judged precious while those of the enemies are judged inconsequential.
President Bush declared that the world hated America because they are envious of the high standard of their living. Not so, America and Americans are hated for the disdain they show to the people of the world and for their disregard of their human rights.
Hope this helps us to understand how the other side feels and to change attitude while there is still time.
Michael asked: "My question: what the hell were the Blackwater guys doing in Fallujah in the first place? And, as they are private contractors, why was it the Marines' job to avenge their deaths by destroying a city? "
My answer: 1.) The Blackwater guys think that once America has invaded a country, that safety and security is a matter of course, just like back in the home country. 2.) The brave marines were so used to little opposition to their sheer show of force that they think they are bullet proof and can do whatever they choose; so they think very little about flattening an occupied country's township to avenge the deaths of the four Blackwater guys just like the Nazis did in the Second World War. That their actions help recruit more enemies against America never crossed their minds. American soldiers are notorious for their "shoot first at anything that moves and ask questions later" that any enemy will do the same to all Americans. However, when they do, they are labelled "Terrorists" but the same deeds done by Americans are called, "Collateral damage". There is no difference in that people are killed but that American lives are judged precious while those of the enemies are judged inconsequential.
President Bush declared that the world hated America because they are envious of the high standard of their living. Not so, America and Americans are hated for the disdain they show to the people of the world and for their disregard of their human rights.
Hope this helps us to understand how the other side feels and to change attitude while there is still time.
Answers:
Q1: They were set up by their Command & Control because they were dissatisfied with what they observed going on around them and were becoming vocal about it. This made them candidates for a fragging. Since the Command & Control were looking for an incident that would open Fallujah to invasion this dovetailed nicely for them. The dead contractors were pawns on the Blackwater chessboard that were sacrificed for a percieved tactical advantage.
Q2: I Don''t know.
Q3: It will be many moons. Regardless of who wins the American elections this cycle Iraq will be decades simmering down to the point of civil discourse and general commercial traffic.
What you fail to consider is that our actions in Iraq are actually quite normal. Consider the 19th and 20th centuries.
Knights of the Golden Circle;
War of 1812;
Wars with Mexico:
1836,
1846,
1847 through 1857,
1914 and
1916;
War with Paraguay, 1859;
Attacks on Cuba and Canada by Filibusters.
Wilson has a lengthy list of interventions in Central America and Russia besides WWI
Since WWII interventions are bigger and bolder. Bush the First coined the phrase, "The New World Order." Bush the Second carried it out. It reminds me of Manifest Destiny. That sounded good in the USA but rotten to those who felt and now feel the heel of American troops or troops trained the the Americans.
Our actions in Iraq are consistent in what we have done for 200 years. We are in such denial we fail to see it. Heck with Political Correct. It is Culturally Correct.
PS throw out your high school history books and get the real facts and you will see this is nothing new.
Mr. Goldfarb, you're not going to be able to eat that fish lunch any time soon according to this post by an American Shiite-Muslim. Especially in Kurdistan.
http://www
It's maybe the best article I've seen on why we can't continue in Iraq. Depressing as hell though. What have we done?
I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
When I was a kid back in 52, I was drafted into the Korean War; that was the only way I could stay in America and become a citizen.
Being so young, I didn’t know much about anything and because of that I felt I was doing my duty defending the country I had chosen. Many of us kids then felt the same way; that we were fighting a terrible enemy. Many young men died in my arms and I was scared and began asking myself a lot of question like, what the hell am I doing here? Why do we have to kill anybody? And on an on my mind went.
Forward to today March 19th, 2008; I know better, but it’s taken all these years to get it together: wars are as insane as the people who send their youth to be massacred. Moreover, they accomplish nothing!
My heart goes out to you Michael, and I hope you make it back in one piece!
I also have some questions to ask and I've been wondering and asking about them since the inception of this entire situation. My first question is , " Are Americans capable of critical thinking?". What has happened to the notion of Americans being Individuals proud of their self actualization. Are we following the same path that citizens of other nations have trod when their countries got to big for their britches because they too became militarily powerful? Are we so ignorant that we want to follow down the path that the German and Austrian people took when they failed to question their leaders and became super patriotic. If so we are already doomed to repeat history.
Has no one questioned how we could be led to believe that Iraq was anywhere near as dangerous a threat to us as Germany and Japan were. Especially those we pay to know better like our intelligence agencies. W W II veterans who fought the Germans have to wonder how Iraqs troops could even have qualified as elite as Hitlers troops were. The Iraqis during desert Storm practically gave up in droves and had no stomach for fighting.
And has anyone asked why our own military leaders and political leaders who supposedly have the benefit of years history and education to fall back on were incapable of taking the simplest measures to deter problems initially that we now are having slap us in the face. For example why weren't armament and munitions supply dumps guarded. Are we really to believe our leaders were so stupid as to assume that all of the Iraqis would love us. Why didn't our military drop leaflets over Iraq ,as I remember them doing in Vietnam, warning the Iraqis to remain indoors and to stay out of our way during the invasion. Could it be that much that was preventable was actually premeditatively planned
for. Did they want the insurgents to have arms and munitions available to them so as to have and excuse to remain in Iraq. Could it be that they didn't institute an immediate curfew and lockdown of the public so that the public would storm palaces and rip down statues for the media to see so that all of this would be transmitted to the world so as to sanctify our invasion. Are we sure that it isn't our gullibility that our Government depends upon so as to cover up devious schemes. When I see a pattern of actions happening that don't make sense I have to make an assumption based on those facts. One is that either our leaders are truly monumentally incompetent and stupid in which case we have to wonder how they get there, or they are exceedingly cunning and devious. The latter case makes me wonder who they are attempting to scam, us the rest of the world , the supposed enemy or all of us, and why.
'My first question is , " Are Americans capable of critical thinking?"'
Well, if "we" have ever been capable, etc.; it's certainly been on hold for most of the last fat 'n' sassy decade. And we are just beginning to pay the price for our inattention and blind trust.
I cannot think of a single initiative that the Bushies have perpetrated, that didn't have "self-interest" tattooed on its ass, that did not do harm to our so-called "democratic majority", and that didn't have a bafflegab title appended to it, if there would be a chance that it would see the light of any kind of scrutiny.
Whatever could be covered up, has been buried so deep under layers and layers of bureaucracy that we may never know the true extent of the damage, except by its symptoms.
I can't think of a single reaction to manmade or natural chaos that was timely, appropriate, or positive in any way. Of course, there's the worst kind of positive: learning how to do something right by observing it being done terribly wrong. We've had plenty of bad examples.
Lastly, I cannot remember an administration that was so busy defending itself, stonewalling, and feathering its own oil-slick nest, that it was found repeatedly to be asleep at the wheel when its electorate needed it most. Several times, in fact. And I was born during Truman's campaign for re-election. What have we done as a people, even given the constitutional remedies at our disposal?
There are several words, but my own deep despair keeps coming up with "ABYSMAL". I think it applies to anyone who voted for these tragically flawed bastards, and to the "leaders" themselves. May we someday soon (306 and counting, in fact) see some hope in our lives.
I think you are right. A few years ago I asked someone on the street about the subway in Los Angeles. The fellow was going there and he showed the way. We got to talking. We stopped talking about anything important when he told me that President Clinton was responsible for Iran Contra affair because the CIA plane landed in Arkansas when Mr. Clinton was governor. He said it with a straight face and he was not joking. !!!??? I was glad when he got off and went the other way.
How can you have a discussion with people like that and there are so many like that?!! It is scary.
Cheney just invoking the name Abraham Lincoln makes me sick to my stomach. Referencing anything this lying, thieving, toilet scum of an administration had done to our 16th president would be laughable if it wasn't so sickeningly perverse. Lincoln was trying to keep this nation united not divy it up to the slimiest crony bidder. They know we have to stay in Iraq or else the U.N. or some other international organization might come in, try Cheney, Bush amd Rumsfield for war crime sand send this country the repair bill for the damage , that these deomic adolescent done in our name the US. We must have laws that allow for the arrest of a criminally retarded administration and if we don't we better come up with some, quick!
Great, sad tale.
For all Blackwater concerns, read "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army" by Jeremy Scahill.
For a look inside the disaster-loving playbook of the kooks in power, one must read "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein. You won't like peeking behind the curtain, but it explains all.
Very sad indeed having to remember this horrific episode of American History, one which as Roosvelt said once, "it will live in infamy" yet at that time we had our revenge, now who will bring justice to the perpetrators of this crime to humanity.
A bit off topic, but remember how difficult it was for you to find a translator
Off topic, but completely accurate. Another example of how bigotry and fold-over partisanship hindered our mission and contributes to failure.
"2002- Gay Linguists Get The Boot - "It's not a gay-rights issue. I'm arguing military proficiency issues - they're throwing out good, quality people."
Alastair Gamble
Former Army Specialist "
"2007-We had conversations about being gay in the military and what it was like. There were no issues with unit cohesion. I never caused divisiveness or ever experienced slurs.He was discharged under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law passed in 1994"
"WASHINGTON: Lawmakers who say the military has kicked out 58 Arabic linguists because they were gay want the Pentagon to explain how it can afford to let the valuable language specialists go.
"Seizing on the latest discharges, involving three specialists, members of the House of Representatives wrote the House Armed Services Committee chairman that the continued loss of such "capable, highly skilled Arabic linguists continues to compromise our national security during time of war."
http://www
Great articles. Should be read by anyone questioning how denying gay Americans equal rights "helps" our military or society. Iran denies it's gay citizens as well, it's a symptom of the theocracy disease that leads to division and failures.
Theocracy is the tool to hide the truth. Those who use it believe America for the very few, them. This is an old story that we have had to contend throughout our history. You believed it ended with the Civil War but it did not. Most of the reasons given by the present administration are examples of cognitive dissonance that is the reasons given are tailored to justify past or planned behavior. In a not so nice world we would call it a lie.
If you go back and look at what happened after the Civil War, you will find that blacks were systematically excluded. The Woodrow Wilson segregated the navy and the White House. Why is this important you ask? Because it is the same behavior. Pit one against the other and spread fear then they can do as they please. In the place of "gay" put black, women, Asian, Jew, union worker, liberal etc. If they let a few in they will have to let others in and they will have to keep them. In this case maybe gays would become excellent soldiers. That would hurt the systematic discrimination that those in power use to keep their power.
Also, people really might learn that those with labels are really people. They might be people everyone could respect and like. That would be dangerous to those who preach this kind of hate and zero sum thinking.
Senator Obama said it like it is. The question is whether America is ready to stand up and face itself. I hope so.
In 2006 the public elected a Democratic Congress. Instead of cutting OFF funding for "The Chimp's" war they've given him every dime he wanted and more. Spineless jellyfish. Absolutely spineless. They did it to us in Viet Nam. Why not now with Iraq? I'd like to know WHY?
I couldn't agree with you more. The problem is: Democrats and Republicans alike are politicians first and everything else second. They're more concerned about the perception of them, rather than the reality, endangering their re-election. That's why to me, Obama is not just a breath of fresh air but much needed oxygen for a terminal patient. Here's hoping the machine doesn't chew him up and spit him out.
You said it right about the Democrats. Jellyfish, Wimps. The only solution is to vote out every Democrat in the coming election that voted for funding of Iraq. Somewhere there must be a list of all the wimps who ran on a platform not to fund Iraq and wound up voting for it. And Democrats have the nerver to mock Bush Sr. for his famous "read my lips" statement. Lets get rid of them, Too many of them have been there too long. If they do not do as they promise, out they go just like anybody who works in private industry. They work for us. Fire the bums.
Excellent idea. Now who do we replace them with? Certainly not more Republicans. Maybe some fence sitting wafflers like "The Chosen One." No that won't do either. Ideas anyone?
To TankerRat,
I think our very own system is what has caused the problem. The Republicans operate on the premise that they want the Constitution adhered to strictly and they feel that they have the only true understanding of what that implies. Yet it has been the Republicans that have violated every part of the Constitution. The Constitution states that the three branches of Government are meant to act so as to be a check and balance on each other. Yet the Republicans have circumvented that by loading the Supreme Court and controlling Congress for at least the first years of Bushes Presidency. In those first years they managed to create enough havoc in our Government that even though the Dems now have a majority in the House that still isn't enough. Not only that the Constitution allows Bush to place in strategic positions those who can "Legitimize" his rule, such as the Justice Department. So far we have had at least three cronies in the Attorney Generals position who serve not the American people and justice, but a Dictator. Where has our Constitution protected us from this eventuality or were our founding fathers that naive that they could not imagine someone actually becoming a tyrant here at home. If we manage to survive Bush and the Republicans then we had better take a second look at our Constitution and our System and see how it can be improved upon.
Umm. Interesting indeed. Just one flaw. Seems the Democrats are guilty of exactly the same things your ascribe to the Republicans. NOT that you are WRONG mind you. Because you aren't.
You'd like to know why, and perhaps, how. This war was conceived in deception provided blessed by Mossad and other Israeli Intelligence Agencies directly to their neo-con scum in both Cheney's and Rumsfeld's domains, whose unswerving loyalties to their numero uno , Israel,got us into this mother of all wars. After that congressional election indicating how the rank and file American People feel about the war, the conclusion was drawn that to unfund this war was a bad omen for Israel in every aspect , related to the continuance of total American support not only for Israel's enlargement activities, but additionallhy for the continued support of its decimating war against Palestinians. Our representatives were directed by the AIPAC troops to cool it, both the rhetoric and anti-war activities.
"related to the continuance of total American support not only for Israel's enlargement activities, but additionallhy for the continued support of its decimating war against Palestinians"
http://en.
We have been actively trying to get a two state solution settled. Palestinians will not remove Hezbollah nor advance the two state solution. That leads one to conclude stopping expansionism isn't the only goal of Palestinians.
"The conflict began when Hezbollah militants fired rockets at Israeli border towns as a diversion for an anti-tank missile attack on two armored Humvees patrolling the Israeli side of the border fence"
This has to stop.
And in that hell and horror, we hear Bush saying what fine thing it was and how successful it is.
And McCain AND Hillary plan to continue and do more.
Prove it? Well ysterday Hillary's chosen representative Ann lewis, to a jewish leaders meeting in Washington, told those leaders, including Eagleberger, former DOS, direct quote
...The Role of the president is to support whatever israel decides...
See wApo article, Dana Milbank headline. Realize that that is EXACTLY what Bush has done.
And israel wants mroe war. ANd to bomb Iran. D
Interesting.
Links to references, please?
To Jabee,
When did America become a subject of Israels, only meant to act as a tool for it's private use?
I offer the following not as corroboration of Jabee's statement, but only as food for thought.
See _The Israel Lobby_ by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt
http://www
It's a good read.
Anti-Semitism is NOT an admirable trait jabee. A lot like racial hatred similar to "The Chosen Ones" former minister.
TankerRat,
I regard it more as America remaining a Autonomous entity and not being manipulated by anyone else for their benefit. Israel to me is like any other nation. We should treat them civily, have cordial relations, and trade with them , but we should not be their pawn. They have shown over the course of many years that they are all about their own survival at any and all costs. They have attacked and nearly sunk a U. S. Navy vessel the U.S.S. Liberty, they have spied on us (Their supposed Ally" countless times. I daresay that these are not the actions of a friend.
Very powerful writing, at least for me.
When is the tenth anniversary of our move into Kosovo? Anyone know the date?
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
