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May 31, 2007
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May 31, 2007 |
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Editorial No words to describe this war On Monday, May 28, three items on the Iraq war appeared on the front page of the New York Times. The article “As Allies Turn Foe, Disillusionment Rises in Some GIs” describes the growing despair of members of Delta Company, a renowned Army unit stationed in Baghdad as part of the Bush administration’s recent “surge.” In interviews with 12 out of the unit’s 80 men, almost all said that, while they once supported the war effort, they no longer do. Most of these soldiers began their deployment as fervent advocates of the war. Many came from longtime military families; one described himself as a “Texas Republican.” They took pride in their country and in their task, no matter how dangerous. But the last months have changed their minds. They see the conflict as a bloody civil war in which Americans have no role, except as targets. They perceive Iraqi politicians as largely sectarian, provoking and prolonging the bloodshed. For many, the turning point came on April 29, according to the article. On that day, the unit responded to an attack by an enemy militia, an event which escalated into a two-hour fire fight. As the attack began, the Iraqi soldiers and police partnering with Delta Company vanished, leaving American soldiers to take the brunt of the battle. When the fight ended, two of the enemy dead turned out to be Iraqi soldiers who had been trained by the Americans. “Before that fight, there were a few true believers,” the unit’s captain said of his men. “After the 29th, I don’t think you’ll find a true believer.” A second front page article, titled “Militants Widen Reach as Terror Seeps Out of Iraq,” is a chilling examination, through interviews with experts, of the seemingly unending supply of terrorists trained in the Iraq war who are now fanning out to other countries. “You have 50 fighters from Iraq in Lebanon now, but with good caution I can say there are a hundred times that many, 5,000 or higher, who are just waiting for the right moment to act,” a Saudi dissident who runs a jihadist Web site said in an interview. “The flow of fighters is already going back and forth, and the fight will be everywhere until the United States is willing to cease and desist.” These days, as I read story after story on the Iraq war disaster, I don’t know what to say anymore. How to describe it? Insane? Immoral? Words don’t seem up to the task. At least, facts are clear: more than 3,600 American soldiers are dead and, according to some estimates, at least 100,000 Iraqis. And then there are images. The final Memorial Day page one item was a photograph of a young woman visiting the grave of her fiance, Sgt. James J. Regan, who died in Iraq this year. The photo shows the young woman lying face down on her future husband’s grave, as if trying to talk to him through the earth or to join him beneath it. A stunning study of grief, the photo was taken in a new section of Arlington National Cemetery for soldiers who died in Iraq or Afghanistan, their simple white headstones stretching as far as the eye can see.
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