Posted on 04/08/2003 5:07:05 AM PDT by SJackson
American soldiers have been disobeying orders. According to The Washington Times, some members of the Army's Civil Affairs Brigade stationed at Umm Qasr are routinely tucking extra cases of bottled water into their Humvees to distribute to thirsty Iraqi civilians. This is against regulations, as rations for soldiers are meant to be kept separate from relief to the civilian population.
But there are problems with the water supply to this region. Though military planners had hoped to have a pipeline and water delivery system providing fresh drinking water to Iraqi civilians running smoothly by now, there have been snags. The drivers assigned to truck water from the pipeline to populated areas have sometimes taken bribes to sell the water to farmers, instead, or have attempted to gouge the locals. The parched civilians who do reach water trucks are frequently trampled in the tumult that surrounds a delivery.
And so American GIs are tucking extra water into their Humvees and handing it out to civilians -- in some cases to the point where our soldiers are going without. The Navy Seabees have also leaped into action, rigging up two reverse-osmosis machines to remove the salt from seawater. "Officially, we're here to generate water for military use," said Petty Officer Ralph Moore, "but unofficially, we do what we can to help."
Has there ever before in history been an invading force that was more careful of enemy civilians than the enemy itself? The coalition is killing large numbers of Iraqis who choose to die for Saddam, but has made it abundantly clear that we are not at war with the people of Iraq and wish to spare them as far as is humanly possible.
The lights and power in Baghdad remain on (except when the regime darkens the capital for its own reasons), and the provision of humanitarian relief has been a top priority since the onset of hostilities. The Saddamites, of course, are trying every disgusting trick they know -- from using schools and hospitals as military bases; to firing from inside mosques; to literally driving women and children before soldiers into battle -- to encourage civilian casualties. Coalition forces have declined to oblige.
Of course there is tragedy in the fate of many Iraqis who feel they have no choice but to die for Saddam. His goons have reportedly entered the homes of thousands, threatening that children would be murdered if older boys and men did not go out to fight for Saddam. But this is part of the ongoing tragedy of Saddam's vicious rule. As Walter Russell Mead has pointed out, for every year that Saddam held power, 60,000 Iraqi children between the ages of 1 and 5 died. Death of innocents is the daily reality of life under Saddam Hussein.
Our soldiers have sometimes expressed incredulity at the suicidal nature of the poorly equipped and utterly outgunned Iraqis throwing themselves at our tanks and armored personnel carriers. I can think of two possible explanations. Some are sacrificing themselves to save their families, and others, Saddam's killers, know that the end is near and fear that their neighbors will exact revenge when the war is over. They'd prefer to die by American than by Iraqi hands.
As of this writing, the war has taken on a Twilight Zone quality. As members of the U.S. army smoke cigars in one of Saddam's largest palaces, and American C-130s land at the renamed Baghdad International Airport, the Iraqi minister of information insists that rumors of an American presence in the city are false. Civilians catch busses and make purchases at markets, and the nights are punctuated by blasts from the sky that make sleep next to impossible.
No one knows if Saddam is alive or dead, but the news of Chemical Ali's demise warms the heart. A cousin of Saddam's, Ali was the enforcer who gassed thousands of Iraqi Kurds in northern Iraq and brutally suppressed the uprising in Basra following the Gulf War in 1991. (This war, for what it's worth, will probably become known as the Iraq War, not the Second Gulf War.)
There are no shades of gray in this war. At its conclusion, which God willing will come soon, we will celebrate the victory of light over darkness. War is a nasty, uncivilized, brutal business. But with that caveat, it is no exaggeration to boast that U.S. and British forces are now fighting the most humanitarian war in history.
G-d bless our military: they are the best our country has to offer. Their degrees are not as advanced as those of Ivy League professors, and their taste in classical music may not be as refined as that of the NPR snobs. But their heart is where American has always been, despite the 50-year onslaught of the Left. And it is the heart that alsways differentiated us from the Europeans.
G-d bless our boys and girls out there, keep them, and bring them back alive and well.
The UK?
I think the defenders are of two kinds. There are plenty of people that were privileged by the regime, and they honestly want it to succeed. Consider the number of people in RUssia that are nostalgic for communism --- it was good for them.
And for others, as you said so well, it is either be killed by a crowd of Iraqis after torture or by a bullet from an American gun. All I care about is that they don't take any of our boys with them when they go down.
You too, Cardinal, have a good day.
The protestants
The white males
The Republicans
These are the only people that counts, the rest of the world can go to hell? SARCASM!!
Bump
The title of the article suggests sinister actions. In reality, officers are not as stupid as one might think. There are instances in which officers don't feel the need to know everything that's going on. We call it "selective blindness."
It's part of the enduring partnership between the officer corps and the senior enlisted ranks... soemtimes the senior enlisted do the right thing, even though it's not strictly by the book, and the officers attention is elsewhere diverted while this occurs, precluding correction.
An odd marriage, but it's worked quite well for a couple of centuries now.
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