Dogs of War

It has been some sickening reading lately, about the atrocities committed by some American soldiers in Iraq. First, we get the disgusting news about the massacre of 24 innocent men, women, and children in Haditha. Now, the BBC is reporting that there is a video that may show that U.S. forces deliberately killed 11 Iraqi civilians in the town of Ishaqi in March. These disclosures contradict reports of both events that were initially given by the U.S. military.

When the full story is told, it won't matter to the world that the murderers who committed these homicides -- and the officers who covered them up -- do not represent us, or the vast majority of the brave men and women who are fighting in Iraq. It won't matter that we will prosecute these people and put them in jail for the rest of their lives. And it certainly won't matter to the world that our President has said that he is "disturbed" by these reports and that he fully intends to punish those responsible.

No, all that the world will see and care about are the pictures of dead Iraqi children and their bullet-ridden mothers who tried to protect them before they were killed too. All that the world will remember are the naked, blindfolded, and humiliated Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib and the American soldiers who pointed at them, laughing. The human pyramids. The dogs.

It should not be lost on anyone that this war is a daily, living, breathing recruiting poster for Al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden doesn't need to send out a videotape with messianic rants against the United States when he has us around to do his work for him. He must be laughing his ass off right now.

I wonder if on March 20, 2003, when our "shock and awe" bombing of Baghdad began, whether President Bush gave any thought whatsoever to the hell that he was about unleash. Before he decided to put American soldiers in harm's way in this war of choice, this excursion, I wonder if he gave any consideration at all to the chaos of war, and how it destroys human beings and whole societies before you can say "Mission Accomplished." I wonder if Bush understood that when you let slip the dogs of war and put a human being in an environment where the enemy is everywhere, where you are not wanted, where you are an occupier, where your friends are getting blown up in front of you, where you don't have enough armor or supplies to defend yourself, and where you don't have enough motherfucking troops to hold on to the towns and territory that you just risked your life to conquer, that very bad things are likely to happen.

History has shown us again and again that in wartime, stresses mount, consciences shift, moral lines get blurred, and innocent people get killed. Human beings can turn into animals. And if you didn't have very much intelligence or character to start with, well, then I guess the trip to becoming a mass murderer is that much shorter. Maybe if Bush understood history, if he read a book once in awhile, he would have thought twice about this war and not listened to his neo-con cronies who now have their tails between their legs.

As we excoriate and prosecute the animals, the killers, who did this, we should remember that the atrocities they committed were done in our name. In our country's name. And the chickens eventually will come home to roost, no matter how much Cipro, duct tape, or iodine we try and stockpile. When the next terrorist explosion happens in New York, or Washington, D.C., or Los Angeles, or Wichita, and Americans die, I wonder if the rest of the world will feel sorry for us like they did the last time. Thanks to Bush's War of Choice, I think it's far more likely that the next time, people will say: "Good, they got what they deserved. Let them feel some pain for a change."