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November 24, 2003
All of us were horrified
All of us were horrified over the weekend when the news came out that two American soldiers had been killed in Mosul, Iraq - first shot, then beaten to death by an angry mob that used, among other things, cinder blocks to pummel their prey to death. What was already a horrific and gut-wrenching incident has been magnified by some in the conservative media, who are using the mob killing as "proof" of the alleged uncivilized or somehow barbaric nature of the situation in Iraq, and to support the argument that the US needs to maintain its presence in Iraq. This is shameful manipulation of a tragic incident - propping up a flawed argument with an ignorant perspective.
I have to be careful how I say this, because I don't want it to be easily misinterpreted, nor do I want it to come off in any way detrimental to the US military. I have nothing but admiration for our men and women of the armed forces. I strongly support the US military; I came from a career military family, and I myself proudly served in the United States Naval Reserve for four years. Anyone - and I do mean ANYONE - on the conservative side who dare tries to call me unpatriotic or anti-military for what I am about to say, I'll provide a fistful of patriotism and miliary support, right across their disgusting traps, and right before demanding to see *their* service record to find out when and where *they* served our country and to compare tours of duty. (All too often, "patriotism" runs only rhetoric deep for conservatives, most of the loudest of whom have neither the spine nor the stomach to serve their country in the military. But I digress.)
I think the incident in Mosul - horrifying and barbaric though it was - was not so much a reflection of the barbarism of the situation in Iraq. It was a reflection of the protective, and sadly vindictive, side of human nature.
Our soldiers and Marines are occupiers. There is no other way of putting a pleasant face on it; the facts of the case are these: The United States invaded Iraq, toppled its government, and now has stationed an occupying force in country to fill the void. Support the Iraq invasion or oppose it, there is simply no way to argue that basic point; it is indisputable. Our forces have been asked to do a job, and they are doing it with courage and honor. It is not a slight to them to say that the job they've been asked to do is occupy a foreign country during a time of war.
I believe that any people in any country might react similarly to the Iraqi mob in Mosul. Picture it: There's a war on. There is no electricity, no commerce, no gasoline, and food is scarce. People have died. And, there are soldiers of an occupying power who walk the streets of town. These soldiers are strangers in a strange land, a foreign presence in a country that has just been invaded. And yet we hypocritically wonder at the barbarism seen in Iraq? Don't you think it would be the same ANYWHERE?
Put the shoe on OUR foot for a moment. Let's suppose, just for a moment, that in the days immediately following 9/11, the UN had placed troops in New York City to maintain order and, ostensibly, to help the people of New York get back on their feet. Now, let's say that among the UN forces are some Arab soldiers - be they Iraqi, Saudi, Palestinian, Yemeni... their exact origin doesn't matter; they're Arabic. Now, let's say we drop two of those soliders on any random street corner in the Bronx or in Jamaica Queens, or in Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn. (Or, for that matter, in Atlanta, or Nashville, or Des Moined.) What exactly do you think might happen?
How many people would *care* that those soldiers' intent was ostensibly to help? How many people do you think would care that those two individuals were not responsible in any way for the horrors visisted upon New York that day? And how many people - New Yorkers, Americans, their hearts heavy for those lost and for the shock of the attacks, and their blood boiling over the violence done to their nation and its people - do you think would see those Arab soldiers and have a sudden coldness run through their veins before all that anger and pain and rage reached a flashpoint? How many do you think would set upon those Arab soldiers with baseball bats, tire irons, crowbars, and anything else they could get their hands on? The crowds wouldn't know anything about the two individuals - all they would see would be occupying soldiers, and they would react. I doubt those two fictitious Arab soldiers would have life expectancies longer than that of a Jennifer Lopez-Ben Affleck romantic comedy at the box office.
Don't believe me? Think I'm wrong? Think that Americans are somehow better than that... that we would not do anything like that because we're too "civilized?" Well then, think back to September 12, 2001, when a gas station attendent in Arizona was shot to death because he *looked* Arabic (he was Indian). Think back to that week, when cab drivers and convenience store owners were so afraid that they took to displaying signs pointing out that they were Indian or Bangladeshi out of fear of the anger and rage they saw in the faces around them - which was in many cases directed at them simply for sharing physical characteristics with the perpetrators of 9/11. How many death threats and how much hate mail did Arab-American organizations receive?
My point is not to point fingers at Americans or call us racist - far from it. We are still the most free place in the world, and as a whole we are extremely open to newcomers and to immigrants and to people who do not look like us. We're not a bad people, nor a bad country - on the contrary, we are a determined and undefeatable people who by and large value freedom and fairness. My point, rather, is that in stressful, painful times, all human beings and all societies have a capacity to react in a violent manner, and that mob violence is not unique to Iraq nor uniquely directed at American armed forces.
I do not defend what was done to those Americans in Mosul; I condemn it, and it turned my stomach. NO ONE should take this blog in any way as a "they asked for it" or "they deserved it" sentiment; they did not. All I suggest is this: foreign occupiers, or any strangers in strange lands, are more likely going to be the targets for the violence and rage of any people under seige. The fact that a Mosul mob brutally murdered two American soldiers is not "proof" of some instability somehow uniquely inherent in Iraq. It is merely proof that a wounded and frightened and angry people are capable of focusing all that pain and fear and anger on the visible reminders of those feelings; proof that war brings out the worst in every human being. No more, and no less. To suggest otherwise not only demeans the people of Iraq, but disrespects the memories of the soldiers who died carrying out their orders - orders to occupy a foreign land.
