So now the history books about this decade are going to record that we destroyed the Iraqi army in order to rebuild it. If memory serves, in Vietnam we destroyed villages in order to save them. Since that obviously didn't work, it makes sense that we took on a bigger task this time.
Now, as then, the American military is starting to worry that our army will be destroyed in the process. That shouldn't be a concern. Nor should the probability that the Iraqi army will never be competent and they'll certainly never achieve the ability to protect the Iraqi people from an invasion like that launched by the US. Because, you see, there's not ever going to be conflict like this again.
There'll never be another mano-a-mano or tank-to-tank engagement. In the future it will be all missile-to-missile intercepts in the statosphere, way over our heads, so the fall-out can travel on the wind and nobody will ever be able to prove who's missile was responsible for all those people dying, slowly.
Since that's the plan, we might as well use up all that surplus hardware, which we'd otherwise have to put in storage and protect from terrorist elements, and let the poor people of the sub-continent transform the scrap into useful items, like they did the brass from Vietnam. Never mind that this time the scrap is contaminated with depleted uranium oxide and likely to cause cancers and birth defects for decades. Once we start keeping track of the incidence of disease and malformation, we'll have a good data base from which to calculate what the consequences of real nuclear fall-out from the missile wars are going to be.
So, in more ways than one, the cradle of civilization, where there are no village huts to burn and houses of stone have to be bombed to smitherenes, will provide us with lots of evidence. It's purpose will be to persuade the rest of the Eastern Hemisphere (and the Western, too) that it's better to let the US "project power" at its pleasure and to not even bother to "deny access"--the new definition of an offensive act. Though the official story is that the US is "spreading democracy," the people of Iraq can testify with absolute certainty that democracy is no respecter of the closed door or personal privacy. And, for those who have trouble understanding the language, there's lots of video to demonstrate what happens when Americans are "denied access." "Fighting them over there, so we don't have to fight them here," takes on a slightly different meaning when you consider that the Patriot Act establishes the same rules here as there.
But of course, if the lesson is well learned, then the attrocities perpetrated on the ground in Iraq not only won't happen here, but the mere threat of mass extermination by missiles colliding in the air or being shot down from satellites in space will be sufficient to make everyone behave. And, to be sure they know the score, the communications media won't just collect information about potential dissidents; they'll be sure to disseminate a steady stream of reminders about proper behavior, even as they provide us with games and virtual environments where any resentments that these restrictions on our freedoms might generate can be defused. Because, you see, when people's minds are under control, their hearts will follow.
Just think how much cheaper such a system will be. Where the word in the fifties was "plastics," the word in the twenty-first century is "electronics." The world will be ruled not by the people who have their finger on the nuclear button, but by the people who generate the power and keep the information flowing and controlled. While people are worried about fuel for vehicles to keep them running on the threadmill of the post-industrial age, the people who want to control them are busily building an electronic cage.
It's a scary prospect. Then I remember the ants building a nest in the wiring harness of our car and chewing up the insulation to short it out and I have to smile. God bless the ants and, oh yes, the lightning that periodically knocks out our computers.
Who knows what critters the missile defense installations being planned for Iraq will encounter? Allah knows.
Posted by Hannah at December 1, 2005 05:59 AM