Mark Phillips: The American Question
7/26/03: Deja vu all over again.
The American military's defeat in Vietnam was caused by many factors, chiefly the determination
of the Vietnamese people to resist foreign occupation.
It's tragic that American behavior contributed to that determination. The American presence in
Vietnam was extraordinarily brutal. According to
participants,
torture, rape and murder were widespread. The CIA's
Phoenix Program
killed tens of thousands, often after
horrific torture.
The Vietnamese people became highly
motivated to resist the American presence by all means possible. They did, and they won.
Underlying this record of brutality and to some degree furthering it was the cultural ignorance
and myopia of many Americans. Racial prejudice against Asians was common among American
troops and officials. If you have any doubts about this, have a look at
Hearts and Minds,
which
so brilliantly captures it. "It'd be a beautiful country if not for the people," instructs an
earnest American hero, a returned POW, passing his prejudice along to a new generation of
American high school students.
Racial prejudice, religious bigotry, and cultural ignorance are playing a similarly destructive
role today in occupied Iraq. While the American military seems to not understand this,
first-hand civilian observers are reporting it unambiguously. This handful of recent press citations
is sadly representative:
"We were happy when the Americans came to Mosul. I went and talked to them and invited them
to my house," said Moheb Aladdin Sakal, 32. "But since then, they have stopped my car
many times and searched me. They make me lie on the ground. They treat me like an animal."
"Troops Accused of Killing in Mosul",
Washington Post, 7/25/03.
"We are furious about people pointing guns at us," said Hamid Hussein, 33, pushing
his broken-down Volkswagen bus to the front door of his house this morning. A United States
Army Humvee was parked in the middle of his street, and a soldier in the turret ordered Mr.
Hussein in English to stop where he was.
"Once Hailed, Soldiers in Iraq Now Feel Blame at Each Step",
New York Times, 6/29/03.
Iraqis said the soldiers who entered their homes that day, and talked to the women inside, crossed a
line established by tradition and honor. Within a day, this conservative town on the Euphrates River
110 miles west of Baghdad, in a relatively well-off region that is home to much of Iraq's Sunni Muslim
minority, became the scene of what seems to have been the first popular uprising against the U.S.
occupation.
"In Searching Homes, U.S. Troops Crossed the Threshold of Unrest",
Washington Post, 5/30/03.
"Showing dead and deformed bodies on TV is not acceptable," protested Amer Ahmed al-Azawi,
a 55-year-old Baghdad merchant. "But the Americans are criminals and unbelievers. We got rid of
one tyrant and we ended up with a bigger one." Hamza Mansour, secretary-general of the Islamic
Action Front in neighboring Jordan, said the display violated Islamic custom. "The bodies of Odai
and Qusai should have been washed, shrouded and buried immediately, but the Americans have no respect
for our traditions and doctrine and they acted in a very unethical manner," he said.
"3 U.S. Troops Die in Iraq Grenade Attack",
Washington Post, 7/26/03.
Sgt. Major Dwight Brown told the troops before Bush's appearance, "I don't want any damn
catcalls from the crowd. We have the president of the United States coming to tell us what a
great job we did destroying those heathen up in northern Iraq." "Bush Pledges to 'Reveal the Truth' About Weapons of Mass Destruction",
Washington Post, 6/5/03.
[Brown was referring, apparently,
to the deaths of 20 unarmed demonstrators shot down by American occupiers in the town of Fallujah
in late April.]
Guerilla resistance in Iraq seems to be fueled by multiple factors. The most
important is probably simple resistance to foreign occupation. It's unfortunate that
Americans' cultural myopia appears to be a significant contributor.
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