What now for United States?
Dec 16, 2003
SOMETIMES it’s a mixed blessing when you finally get what you have been looking for.
SOMETIMES it’s a mixed blessing when you finally get what you have been looking for.
That was the case last Saturday night when 600 soldiers from the US 4th Infantry Division, along with special forces, engineers and air support launched Operation Red Dawn in the early evening hours, having identified two possible locations, codenamed Wolverine One and Wolverine Two, raided a walled compound outside Saddam Hussein hometown of Tikrit, and literally caught the former Iraqi dictator napping.
For whatever it’s worth, the capture of Saddam Hussein does present President George Bush with the opportunity to get out of the oil-rich desert nation with his head held high, and with no more dead American soldiers coming home in body bags.
All he would need to do is inform the American people that with the former dictator under lock and key, there is no need to extend American stay in Iraq.
The real truth about weapons of mass destruction will never be known because Saddam is not saying where he hid them, Bush could say. And with time, Americans and most of the world would forget that Bush invaded Iraq on the flimsiest of evidence and got away with it.
The trouble is that the government of President Bush has a way of squandering away excellent opportunities that fall on their laps.
For instance, last spring after capturing Baghdad, they had an excellent chance to extend an immediate olive branch to Iraq’s defeated troops. Instead, the Americans went about breaking doors, shooting down anyone they as much as suspected was linked to the regime, and consequently alienated many of the very people who welcomed them with songs of praise.
British troops did the opposite in the southern city of Basra thereby creating a peaceful co-existence with the inhabitants.
Then came the killing of Saddam’s sons, Uday and Qusay in Mosul on July 22, 2003. Again, instead of keeping the whole affair hush-hush, the Americans trumpeted it to the whole world, therein only helping to stiffen the backbone of the resistance rather than weakening it.
For many Iraqis, the idea that cowards like Qusay and Uday could actually die in combat became a personal challenge to rise even higher and do something for “your countryâ€. Indeed, many more Americans died in the aftermath of the demise of the two brothers.
Americans can lose the latest gains from the capture of Saddam by making the wrong choices as they did on Sunday morning at the news conference called by Paul Bremer, the US Civil Administrator in Iraq.
Flanked by Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, allied military commander in Iraq; and Adnan Pachachi, acting president of the Iraqi Governing Council, Bremer should have resisted the very temptation to announce the capture himself.
He should have elected to play second fiddle to Pachachi, allowing the Iraqi to relay the all-important information to his people.
Delivered by an Iraqi, the news would have had a very powerful resonance among the very people for whose ears it was intended.
The visual perception would have been one of Iraqis now being firmly in control of their own affairs, and in fact it would have been the signal for resisters to lay down arms and rally around the new leaders (since the old was truly out of service for ever).
Instead, Bremer, in typical American swagger, walked to the microphone, then it a dramatic pause said, “Ladies and gentlemen, (pause). We got himâ€.
Of course everyone who had been watching CNN three hours earlier knew that they likely got the man, so he was not really giving any new information.
Bremer and his boss Bush need to realise that the Iraqi uprising will likely go on anyway. Moreover, it’s likely that many of those seen celebrating in Baghdad on Sunday, are the very same combatants hiding in the shadows, ready to strike at Americans.
In other words, among those fighting the Americans today, there is something a lot deeper than mere nostalgia for Saddam — there is a serious war of nationalism going on, and the sooner the Americans recognise it for what it is, the better.
Which means that the event of this weekend can benefit the Americans or hinder them in their quest for peace in Iraq. For one thing, Americans truly must make Iraqis feel in control of their destiny and the sooner this is done the better for everyone including Bush.
Any lingering will only give impetus to strike at Americans, the capture of Saddam notwithstanding.
Oloyao@ycdsb.edu.on.ca
That was the case last Saturday night when 600 soldiers from the US 4th Infantry Division, along with special forces, engineers and air support launched Operation Red Dawn in the early evening hours, having identified two possible locations, codenamed Wolverine One and Wolverine Two, raided a walled compound outside Saddam Hussein hometown of Tikrit, and literally caught the former Iraqi dictator napping.
For whatever it’s worth, the capture of Saddam Hussein does present President George Bush with the opportunity to get out of the oil-rich desert nation with his head held high, and with no more dead American soldiers coming home in body bags.
All he would need to do is inform the American people that with the former dictator under lock and key, there is no need to extend American stay in Iraq.
The real truth about weapons of mass destruction will never be known because Saddam is not saying where he hid them, Bush could say. And with time, Americans and most of the world would forget that Bush invaded Iraq on the flimsiest of evidence and got away with it.
The trouble is that the government of President Bush has a way of squandering away excellent opportunities that fall on their laps.
For instance, last spring after capturing Baghdad, they had an excellent chance to extend an immediate olive branch to Iraq’s defeated troops. Instead, the Americans went about breaking doors, shooting down anyone they as much as suspected was linked to the regime, and consequently alienated many of the very people who welcomed them with songs of praise.
British troops did the opposite in the southern city of Basra thereby creating a peaceful co-existence with the inhabitants.
Then came the killing of Saddam’s sons, Uday and Qusay in Mosul on July 22, 2003. Again, instead of keeping the whole affair hush-hush, the Americans trumpeted it to the whole world, therein only helping to stiffen the backbone of the resistance rather than weakening it.
For many Iraqis, the idea that cowards like Qusay and Uday could actually die in combat became a personal challenge to rise even higher and do something for “your countryâ€. Indeed, many more Americans died in the aftermath of the demise of the two brothers.
Americans can lose the latest gains from the capture of Saddam by making the wrong choices as they did on Sunday morning at the news conference called by Paul Bremer, the US Civil Administrator in Iraq.
Flanked by Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, allied military commander in Iraq; and Adnan Pachachi, acting president of the Iraqi Governing Council, Bremer should have resisted the very temptation to announce the capture himself.
He should have elected to play second fiddle to Pachachi, allowing the Iraqi to relay the all-important information to his people.
Delivered by an Iraqi, the news would have had a very powerful resonance among the very people for whose ears it was intended.
The visual perception would have been one of Iraqis now being firmly in control of their own affairs, and in fact it would have been the signal for resisters to lay down arms and rally around the new leaders (since the old was truly out of service for ever).
Instead, Bremer, in typical American swagger, walked to the microphone, then it a dramatic pause said, “Ladies and gentlemen, (pause). We got himâ€.
Of course everyone who had been watching CNN three hours earlier knew that they likely got the man, so he was not really giving any new information.
Bremer and his boss Bush need to realise that the Iraqi uprising will likely go on anyway. Moreover, it’s likely that many of those seen celebrating in Baghdad on Sunday, are the very same combatants hiding in the shadows, ready to strike at Americans.
In other words, among those fighting the Americans today, there is something a lot deeper than mere nostalgia for Saddam — there is a serious war of nationalism going on, and the sooner the Americans recognise it for what it is, the better.
Which means that the event of this weekend can benefit the Americans or hinder them in their quest for peace in Iraq. For one thing, Americans truly must make Iraqis feel in control of their destiny and the sooner this is done the better for everyone including Bush.
Any lingering will only give impetus to strike at Americans, the capture of Saddam notwithstanding.
Oloyao@ycdsb.edu.on.ca