Sneaky War Tactics Befuddle Our Innocence

FREEMAN CENTER FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES | 3/28/03 | Jack Engelhard

[h.a. cherev]

The Arab Street is not the Champs Elysees. In our big-hearted innocence, we expected a repeat of that scene a generation ago when 40 million Frenchmen threw their daughters at us in gratitude. This is not happening today in Iraq. As we can see for ourselves, but as the Philadelphia Inquirer put it diplomatically -- "Even some ordinary Iraqis are greeting advancing U.S. and British forces as invaders, not as liberators."

So forget the chewing gum and the nylons as a means to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people.

Here's a terrible thought: Maybe these are not nice people. Maybe they actually like Saddam. Not all of them, but enough.

One particular TV-moment stands out. The sequence shows "ordinary" Iraqi villagers hacking through the brush to find a downed American pilot. There's about a hundred of them and they are not on a rescue mission. Quite the opposite. They're after a trophy and going at it in the gruesome festiveness of a fox hunt. All that's missing is the master of hounds and the bugler.

Isolated instances? Perhaps. Or maybe we¹re being quickened to the fact that there¹s an entire population that is different from you and me.

Nobody knows that better than the Israelis. Will they ever learn? Will we ever learn?

Watch "ordinary" Iraqis dancing atop a fallen American helicopter and you begin to wonder if they appreciate our bringing them "liberty."

Maybe they're happier with the Saddam Hussein they know, than with the Thomas Jefferson they don't know.

Listen to a man in the heat of battle, Lt. Col. Michael Belcher of the 1st Marine Division: "It felt great when we came in, with the crowds waiting and smiling. Now you wonder what¹s behind those smiles." His words come from the New York Post.

Over and again, our soldiers are being tricked. Surrendering Iraqis are merely waiting for the main convoy to pass so they can attack from behind. They've already caught and killed members of an American maintenance crew, those who do not do battle but, as one American captive said: "We just fix stuff." These men and women travel at the tail end, these maintenance crews, where there's the least amount of protection.

But the cowardly Iraqis intentionally seek the rear to attack the defenseless. Let's consider the definitive quote, which comes not from the New York Post, but from Scriptures: "Remember what Amalek did to you when you came forth out of Egypt...how he met you by the way...and killed the hindmost of you...all that were enfeebled in your rear, when you were faint and weary."

Is this not Scriptures all over again? Is this not Amalek we again face, whether we're Americans, British or Israelis? In a word, the Amalekites were not only cruel, they were "sneaky." Throughout the generations, scholars have wondered why Providence singled out the Amalekites as a nation undeserving of forgiveness and to "utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven."

Now, nine Americans are dead after an Iraqi unit "surrendered" and then opened fire as the unsuspecting Marines approached.

In Israel, they sneak up on school buses filled with children before blowing them up.

Back in Iraq they sneak into hospitals and hide behind doctors, nurses and patients.

They sneak up on the unarmed, the blameless, the young, the very old, yes -- the enfeebled, the weary. These are Amalekite tactics and therefore this must be Amalek.

Bush and Sharon may want to rethink this enemy and remember King Saul whose downfall was that he chose to act "more merciful than God."

If you run this piece, please include the following byline: Jack Engelhard is the author of the international bestseller "Indecent Proposal" and is a former radio and newspaper editor covering the Mideast and former American volunteer in the Israeli Defense Forces. His columns can be read online at http://www.comteqcom.com/jackcolumn.php and he can be reached at JackEngelhard@ComteQcom.com.

[starman1]

Some people believe the side benefit of providing the opportunity for liberation to the Iraqi people as our primary goal.
Our main purpose is the destruction of weapons of mass murder that can be used on our people, the destruction of terrorist networks that seek to destroy our liberty and freedom of worship, and the preservation of Israel.

[ricpic]

It's pie in the sky to believe that Iraq after Saddam will be transformed into something approximating a western democracy. It will be victory enough if a relatively lawful regime that is not expansionist or anti-American comes to power.

[swarthyguy]

Man, I am so sick of this myth of American "innocence".

Seems like America has lost her innocence more often that a Saudi Princess..

Was it the LouisisaPurchase, Florida, Quebec, Antietam, Cuba, Phillipines, , Pearl Harbor, Sputnik, BayofPigs, Kennedy, Vietnam, what?

It is the ignoramuses of Media types who keep parroting this myth.

[DoughtyOne]

click the graphic to view the complete Victory Series

[observer5]

The reason it is not happening is that the US abandoned them once before and they have no faith they will stay and protect them from the wrath of SADDDAMM!

[KeyWest]

Premature. Still less than a week. Plus, other reports are coming in that counter all the negative reports of the first week. Peace.

[elmer fudd]

The Germans tried all manner of dirty tricks against us during WWII. They dressed in American uniforms, placed saboteurs in our factories and on our docks and did anything else they thought might help to defeat us, yet after the war they accepted defeat and occupation. I think the Iraqis will too.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

The Arab Street is not the Champs Elysees.

However, it looks like the Champs Elysees will be an Arab street before too long.

[lucysmom]

The reason it is not happening is that the US abandoned them once before and they have no faith they will stay and protect them from the wrath of SADDDAMM!

I think that is true.

In addition, they have had experience with an occupying power, Great Britain, it could well be something they don't want to repeat. They have only our word that we want their freedom; from their point of view, why should they trust their future and lives to that.

To excuse military incompetence (I am not blaming our troops, just the training they've been given) as innocence is ridiculous. As the professionals, it is their job to assess risks in the context of military history.

[starman1]

Perhaps you are right. Then it is up to us to make sure this is more than a propaganda campaign. There are two billion muslims watching to see if we will act like people of honor, or as morally relativistic Europeans.