|
CounterPunch
March 15,
2003
Our
Fellow Citizens, Nor Our Troops
The Grunts of
Empire
by FRAN SHOR
As the Bush Administration prepares for its impending
invasion of Iraq--an invasion that contravenes international
law and world opinion--the jingoistic appeals to support the
troops is heard in numerous quarters. Whether heartfelt expressions
of concern or cynical manipulation of patriotism, such appeals
are based on a profound misunderstanding of what the troops represent
and how they are used in war-making and consensus-building.
It is important to underscore the fact
that these men and women have been put in harm's way by an Administration
and military system that values them only as instruments for
war. Our care for them as relatives, friends, neighbors, and,
fundamentally, our fellow-citizens should not be in doubt. In
no way, however, does this condone the policies they will be
forced to carry out--policies that will lead to the slaughter
of tens of thousands of Iraqis in the furtherance of an arrogant
and obsessive vision of a new American empire. Hence, they go
into battle as the empire's troops, not our troops.
Clearly, the Bush Administration is worried
about potential war crimes embedded in their plans for war on
Iraq. From the air strategy of "shock and awe" where
thousands of missiles would bombard Baghdad in the first 48 hours,
killing massive numbers of innocent civilians, to the use of
landmines, bio-chemical and even "low-level" radiation
weapons, Washington policy-makers are aware that military strategists
and their troops could be found guilty of war crimes by the new
International Criminal Court. George W. may have even pronounced
such an inadvertent judgment when he cautioned Iraq's generals
they would be "held to account as war criminals...if they
take innocent life, if they destroy infrastructure..." (New
York Times, 2/26/03, p.1) Perhaps this also explains why the
Bush Administration has shunned the International Criminal Court
and negotiated deals with individual countries to resist turning
over any US military members to the Court.
Such concern for individual troops is
more a commitment to waging unfettered war without moral scruples
than protecting the well-being of US soldiers. In fact, as one
reviews how US soldiers have been treated by the Pentagon in
recent wars, one is left with the distinct impression that the
Washington policy-makers don't give a damn about their troops.
In the Vietnam War, the average grunt was used as bait in the
infamous "search-and destroy" strategy, susceptible
to high percentages of friendly fire and at times doused by the
carcinogenic herbicide, Agent Orange. In the Gulf War, US soldiers
were injected with experimental anti-nerve gas agents and flawed
anthrax vaccine. On top of that, they were also caught up in
the residues of dangerous depleted uranium. No wonder that the
Pentagon refuses to acknowledge the Gulf War Syndrome!
Even now, as the preparations to a full-scale
attack on Iraq are readied, there are reports of faulty protective
gear being distributed to US soldiers. Furthermore, the Bush
Administration and the Pentagon are just itching to try out a
wide array of newly devised weapons, some of which will undoubtedly
cause harm to advancing US troops. The one concern that may give
the war-makers pause is the risk of large numbers of US casualties
and a drawn-out war. While civilian Pentagon planners may be
emboldened by a 1999 study of casualty aversion by the Triangle
Institute for Security Studies which suggested that the public
might tolerate up to thirty thousands US deaths in a war in Iraq,
Washington is still skittish about thousands of body bags coming
home and a prolonged conflict.
As a way to protect against such an outcry
over US deaths, not to mention the massive suffering of innocent
Iraqis, the Pentagon is planning to use a complicit media to
highlight the heroic role of selected troops and to cast the
anti-war movement in a role of unpatriotic back-stabbers. In
a recent article in Time magazine, an anxious US soldier in Kuwait
was quoted disdaining the protest activities of those back home
and worrying about whether he would be spat upon by protesters
when he returned home. The whole manufactured image of anti-war
protesters spitting on returning vets, as Jerry Lembcke points
out in his important book, The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory and
the Legacy of Vietnam, was created by the media and utilized
by the Reagan and Bush Administrations to ramp up aggressive
interventions and discredit peace activists. In fact, Vietnam
vets were courted by the anti-war movement and became key allies
in undermining the war efforts, especially, of the Nixon Administration.
Although the elimination of the draft
has made it more difficult for organizing within the military,
there are seeds of discontent that are evident from weekend warriors
to former and present military officers, especially in opposition
to a war on Iraq. The whole Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war
and the recklessness of Bush diplomacy is causing alarm for citizens
inside and outside the military. Our task is not to rally round
the troops, but to bring them home now!
Fran Shor
is an anti-war activist and teaches at Wayne State University.
His e-mail address is:
f.shor@wayne.edu
Yesterday's
Features
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream (Interview)
Jason Leopold
Rumsfeld and Bush Sr. Opposed 1989 UN Investigation of Saddam
for Human Rights Violations
Josh Ruebner
An
Open Letter to My Former Dean, Paul Wolfowitz (and Other "Court"
Jews)
Mitchel Cohen
The
Gulf War 12 Years Later: Why Class Matters
Carlos Fuentes
The Insulting Insinuations of the Bush Regime
Fareed Marjaee
The Road to Jerusalem Goes Through Baghdad
Rick Giombetti
The Savagely Soft Underbelly
of the Anti-War Movement: Misquided Faith in the UN
Rich Procter
Rove Memo: How to Launch a War
Ritt Goldstein
Oil
War: the Smoking Guns
Website of the Day
Give
War a Chance: the Anti-Peace Anthem
Keep CounterPunch
Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- Turkish Delights: a Pre-War Diary by Tariq Ali;
- The Plot to Frame the
Zapatistas: Talkers
and Cowards;
- Drugging Kids: The Plague of Neuroleptics;
- The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal:
a New Investigation.
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
Take a Bite Out of Phil Knight's Bottom Line: Buy No Sweat Apparel!
March 8 /
9, 2003
Edward Said
Who's
In Charge?
Bruce Jackson
Elegy
for Two Giraffes and a Zebra
Perry Anderson
The Casuistries of Peace and
War
Joanne Mariner
Patriot
Act II's Attack on Punishment
William Lind
A Warning from Clausewitz on 4th Generation Warfare
Sam Husseini
Why
So Long for Iraq to Comply? Follow the Policy
Forrest Hylton
Business as Usual in Bolivia?
David Lindorff
Race and the Death Penalty in Pennsylvania
Ben Tripp
Is There
a Eurologist in the House?
Anthony Gancarski
W's Personal Jesus
Jon Elmer
An Interview with William Blum
Douglas Valentine
The Clash of the Icons
Norman Madarasz
Radical Politics and the Writer:
Maurice Blanchot
Gordon Solberg
There's
Got to be a Better Way
Poets' Basement
Guthrie, Engel, Bernard
Weekend Website
The
White House
February 28,
2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Meet
the New Yorker's Chief Hack: Jeffrey Goldberg
Saul Landau
Now
It's Personal
Michael Neumann
A Plea for Hysteria
Karima Bennoume
The UN: Tool for Peace or War?
The Black
Commentator
The Rev. Sharpton and the Soul of the Democrats
Jennifer Loewenstein
Don't Turn Off the War
Richard Levins
Cuba's Biological Weapons: Why the World Needs More of Them
M. Shahid Alam
Is This a Clash of Civilizations?
Clay Conrad
Juries
and Judges: What's Relevant?
Ben Tripp
Speaking in Tongues: a Guide to Gibberish in the Age of Bush
Eliot Katz
To Declare Preemptive War is to Declare a Bankrupt Imagination
Kurt Nimmo
Paying Through the Nose to Kill Iraqi Kids
Matt Vidal
George W. Bonaparte
Mark Zepezauer
Why the Right Hates America
Mickey Z.
The Anti----War Talk I Never Gave
Jerry Kroth
Jung and the Space Shuttle Revisited
Shyam Oberoi
Chronicle of a War Foretold
Ron Jacobs
What If the Firebombing of Baghdad Were a Nightclub Fire?
Poets' Basement
Eliot Katz and Jim Cohn
Website of
the Weekend
Defense
Tech
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|