Falluja

If any illusions remained about our undertaking in Iraq, they were beaten and scorched and strung up from a bridge Wednesday in Fallujah, alongside the mutilated bodies of U.S. civilian contractors. Even the most starry-eyed should now realize that we have committed this nation to a very tough struggle in a brutally inhospitable place populated not by incipient democracy-lovers but by people who have for generations settled disputes with bullets and bombs and who are still intent on doing so.

  Atlanta Journal Constitution article

How do we continue to delude ourselves into believing that "those people" are fundamentaly different from us? Are we not settling our disputes with bullets and bombs? In fact, correct me if I'm wrong, but we're the ones who initiated this particular slaughter fest. Why is this incident so much more appalling and horrifying to us than the bombings of innocent civilians that left scores of little children dead and limbless? Why is it so much less disturbing when bombs are used to rip the limbs off children than when enraged and disempowered people bare-handedly rip the limbs off adult mercernaries? It's just "shock and awe" on a small budget. Weren't Americans just as wildly cheering that initial "Mission Accomplished"?

This goes to the heart of why we favor aerial bombardment versus "boots on the ground". It's certainly no more civilized. It's the difference between a thumbnail and an enlarged photo. Misery, gore and death from a distance. It's so much less impacting on the senses, and we can avoid exposing the brutality of our own soldiers.

In insisting that we have "resolve" enough to do whatever it takes to "win" in Iraq, and not pull out (like the Clinton administration did in Somalia) when we lose lives in this manner, the author of this article is missing one important detail. These were mercenaries, not volunteer (or even drafted) servicemen. Private companies are going to stay or not according to the profitability and ability to attract employees. Resolve has nothing to do with it.

The title of that AJC article is: "Only a full tank of resolve will get job done in Iraq"

I don't know if they intended to be so obvious about connecting the war with oil, but, how appropriate.