In 1972, one photograph played a key role in turning Americans against the war in Vietnam.
And now there’s this, from Tal Afar, Iraq:
Our soldiers shot this girl’s family at a traffic checkpoint. She was the only survivor. Did our troops intend to do evil? Of course not. But evil was done, and this photograph captures the horrifying aftermath.
This evil was done in our name.
What the fuck is wrong with us?
Dick 01/22/05 10:54 AM
Paul,
I certainly respect your views but I’m going to withhold judgment for a few more months.
As to the evil in the photograph, I remember all too well the photo of Kim Phuc, the Vietnamese girl running down Hwy 1 with her clothes burned off by napalm. As it turned out, S. Vietnamese Skyraiders had dropped the napalm when ordered by a S. Vietnamese FAC. The US wasn’t involved at all but we took the heat for it. Also, Kim Phuc is still very much alive.
I saw one video of the beheadings in Iraq. Now that was evil.
Last March, I said that we need to give the war another 18 to 24 months. The coming election is a major waypoint on that road. Personally, I believe that we will, in the end, have to partition Iraq as the hatreds run too deep. And that started way before we got there.
One last thing. 9-11 came out of a dysfunctional Middle East and was a defacto declaration of war. If the terrorists had been agents of any formal government, we would have declared war on that country. As it is, we are dealing with subnational groups that are organized internationally, but rooted in the Middle East and the culture itself. They are informal and non-linear. Their strategy is asymmetric warfare and their tactic terrorism. They chose the US as the battleground, GWB chose the Middle East.
I can live with that.