Tom Palaima: Pre-Empted by the War in Iraq
[Palaima is a professor of classics at the University of Texas.]
There are many ways we can begin looking at the likely legacy of what we have done through our pre-emptive use of military force in Iraq. We are in an end game achieved through a temporary upscaling of military force combined with making payments to factional leaders not to unleash violence.
This so-called surge of men and money was a temporary measure. It is hard to understand why its success is being taken as predictor of any long-term stability.
There are permanent legacies of the commanders in the field and the political leaders in Washington who sent them forth. These have to do with real soldiers and with contractors in charge of rebuilding the infrastructure in Iraq at great expense.
Recently my colleague, Tarek El-Ariss, a professor in Middle Eastern Studies, turned the attention of our Humanities Institute seminar to a blogger, ‘river' at Riverbend, a young Iraqi woman who wrote for four years — from Aug. 23, 2003, until Sept. 6, 2007 — from Baghdad. She describes in 2003 the immediate impact of the American invasion: a rapid influx of terrorists and religious extremists who flourish "in times of chaos and disorder." The repressive measures of the extremists undo the existing western-style tolerant harmonies among "moderate Muslims who simply believe(d) in ‘live and let live'."
Sunnis and Shi'a, Muslims, Christian and Jews had gotten along with one another. Half the college students and more than 50 percent of the work force were women. The war destroyed that society and took away freedoms from many women, freedoms that have not been restored....
Read entire article at Austin Statesman
There are many ways we can begin looking at the likely legacy of what we have done through our pre-emptive use of military force in Iraq. We are in an end game achieved through a temporary upscaling of military force combined with making payments to factional leaders not to unleash violence.
This so-called surge of men and money was a temporary measure. It is hard to understand why its success is being taken as predictor of any long-term stability.
There are permanent legacies of the commanders in the field and the political leaders in Washington who sent them forth. These have to do with real soldiers and with contractors in charge of rebuilding the infrastructure in Iraq at great expense.
Recently my colleague, Tarek El-Ariss, a professor in Middle Eastern Studies, turned the attention of our Humanities Institute seminar to a blogger, ‘river' at Riverbend, a young Iraqi woman who wrote for four years — from Aug. 23, 2003, until Sept. 6, 2007 — from Baghdad. She describes in 2003 the immediate impact of the American invasion: a rapid influx of terrorists and religious extremists who flourish "in times of chaos and disorder." The repressive measures of the extremists undo the existing western-style tolerant harmonies among "moderate Muslims who simply believe(d) in ‘live and let live'."
Sunnis and Shi'a, Muslims, Christian and Jews had gotten along with one another. Half the college students and more than 50 percent of the work force were women. The war destroyed that society and took away freedoms from many women, freedoms that have not been restored....