"...they are now viewed as virtually subhuman."

[Q]

Published on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 by the Independent/UK

Power and Vainglory: Iraq Isn't Another Vietnam - It's Much Worse

The images of abused prisoners demonstrate not just American depravity, says the philosopher John Gray, but the folly of waging war as a moral crusade

by John Gray

Misguided from the start, the war in Iraq is spiraling out of control. Any legitimacy the occupying forces may ever have possessed has been destroyed, and there are signs that Iraqi insurgents are coming together to mount a movement of resistance that could render the country ungovernable. With even more damning images likely to find their way into the public realm in the near future, the United States is facing an historic defeat in Iraq - a blow to American power more damaging than it suffered in Vietnam, and far larger in its global implications.

The inescapable implication of currently available evidence is that the use of torture by US forces was not an aberration, but a practice sanctioned at the highest levels. Undoubtedly there were serious breaches of discipline, and the blank failure to understand that they had done anything wrong displayed by some of the abusers does not speak well for the levels of training of sections of the US military.

Abuse on the scale suggested by the Red Cross report cannot be accounted for by any mere lapse in discipline or the trailer-park mentality of some American recruits. It was inherent in the American approach to the war. American military intervention in Iraq was based on neo-conservative fantasies about US forces being greeted as liberators. In fact, as could be foreseen at the time, it has embroiled these forces in a brutal and hopeless war against the Iraqi people. From being regarded as passive recipients of American goodwill, they are now viewed as virtually subhuman. If, as seems clear, British forces are innocent of anything resembling the systemic abuse that appears to have been practiced by the Americans, one reason is that they do not share these attitudes.

The resistance mounted by the Iraqi insurgents can be compared to the anti-colonial liberation struggles of the 1950s, but the closest parallels with the intractable conflict now under way are found in Chechnya, which remains a zone of anarchy and terror despite the ruthless deployment of Russian firepower and the systematic use of torture for more than a decade. It was the prospect of an intractable guerrilla conflict that led many soldiers in the Pentagon to express deep reservations regarding the war. When the civilian leadership launched the invasion of Iraq, US forces were plunged into a type of conflict for which they are supremely ill equipped.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0519-12.htm

[kentuck]

1. This should even scare the right-wingers sober....

"...the United States is facing an historic defeat in Iraq - a blow to American power more damaging than it suffered in Vietnam, and far larger in its global implications."

[whistle]

2. I am praying that sanity prevails....

...and we leave Iraq.

[Tellurian]

3. The most disturbing words in the article

"and the blank failure to understand that they had done anything wrong displayed by some of the abusers does not speak well for the levels of training of sections of the US military."

Mirrored by the "blank failure" of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld who covertly changed the ground rules of engagement under the Rules of War.

[Individualist]

5. Even more disturbing

is that far too many Americans (those influenced by OxyRush and the RNC) fail to understand that the abusers have done wrong.

[maggrwaggr]

7. maybe now that they see them posing with corpses

it will sink in.

Denial is one of the first steps toward acceptance.

[Must_B_Free]

4. It's OK to kill them then, they are not human

it is essential to divorce the enemy from any empathy you might have, in order to commit murder.

"So what if I killed a Chinaman, I enjoyed it! It's not like he was a real man"
- Murderer on trial in episode of Kung Fu

We will never show weakness in the face of these people who have no soul
- George Bush

[tjwash]

8. That's the oldest propaganda trick ever.

Dehumanize you're enemy, and it makes them easier to slaughter. It's even in the bible, in the old testament. They convinced Moses' people that those that were already living in "their" promise land were baby sacrificing, cannibalistic heathens that needed to be killed, when in reality, they were probably anything but. Come to think of it, that's also the approach we took with the Native Americans here. Hell, remember 1998, the "BABIES TORN FROM INCUBATORS" screaming headlines in the papers? Saying the Iraqi soldiers were tearing babies from incubators and throwing them on the floors to die? And it turned out to be a complete fabrication? Hell I know people that STILL think that was real.

[Tansy_Gold]

6. This is a great essay, Q. Thanks for posting it

I just wanna kick it for the morning crowd.

[OneBlueSky]

9. great analysis . . . finally someone telling it exactly like it is . . .

I hope this gets wide readership . . . and that more journalists, philosophers, political scientists, sociologists, etc. start articulating the truth as well as John Gray has . . . we need to get through to people that what is happening under BushCo is very, very wrong on so many levels . . .

[thebigidea]

10. heck, they've been using the word "subhuman" on FOX already

[maggrwaggr]

12. months ago I heard them say "our enemy, Iran"

when discussing Iran.

I just thought WTF?

[kentuck]

11. Not only did they have to convince our troops they were subhuman...

they also had to convice them that they attacked our country on 9/11.

[Karenina]

13. And see HOW EASY THAT WAS!!!

:eyes:

[supernova]

14. Sadly eligiac

:-(

John Gray writes the first post-mortem on the War on Terror. Thanks for sharing Q.

Unfortunately, we have many more bodies, Iraqi and American, before it's true that The world has seen the last of liberal imperialism. It died on the killing fields of Iraq. It is no consolation to the people of that country, but at least their sufferings have demonstrated the cruel folly of waging war in order to fight a liberal crusade.

I fear that the handover on June 30 will give us an easy escape to not learn this lesson.

[Cheswick2.0]

15. this is why you don't fight an unjust war, this is why you don't fight an

unjust war! Is anyone listening?
This is why you don't give George Bush the POWER to wage an unjust war, one with no proof that we were in danger..... no matter how much you want to be president.
This is why I admire Senator Byrd and Howard Dean and Al Gore and all the other people(mostly in the democratic congress)who said, STOP, don't give bush a blank check to wage war.
Because it doesn't just matter how politically smart a decision is. It also matters how your decisions effect humanity.

[Q]

17. Unjust, unprovoked, war of aggression...

...where have we heard this before? (Nuremberg).

[Hubert Flottz]

16. The folks in the middle east are Bushco's "untermenchen"!

Just like the people of eastern Europe and the USSR were Hitler's "untermenchen"!