Surge Update

Watched two disturbing programs on PBS last night: one on The Gangs of Iraq.

About all I can say is what a fucking mess. The more you know, the worse it gets. I felt personal humiliation watching an American contract trainer and self-described “inspirational speaker” in a session with Iraqi police recruits.

“Let me hear you say Freedom!” They say freedom.

He exhorts them to say it louder: “FREEDOM!” They do.

This goes on like a high school pep rally through about five iterations. At the end he makes them repeat an improvised pledge of allegiance to the Iraqi flag, which looks like it’s been crudely painted as a wall poster.

The rest of the program documented the infiltration of Iraqi police and army units by militias and the steady deterioration of security in Iraq since our invasion. It was gritty stuff. You won’t see footage like this on NBC or ABC. CBS I couldn’t say since even the sight of Katie Couric makes me gag.

But the scene that stands out in my mind most is not the mutilated bodies or the deserted Iraqi police stations. It’s the idiot cheer leader trying to get a roomful of Iraqi police to shout “freedom!” just a little bit louder.

The second program was an amazing film made by PBS but entirely produced by and about Richard Perle, one of the neocon architects of the war. (So much for the PBS “liberal bias.”) Perle was adamant that neocons still passionately believe we were right to invade Iraq. He rehashes the WMD evidence. He never quite acknowledges that we got that wrong, saying only that even the Germans and French agreed on the intelligence. Even Hillary agreed on the links to terrorists.

Who cares? The Germans and the French opposed the invasion. Hillary is not my role model and she doesn’t speak for me or all Democrats.

For what it's worth, I’m proud that all of Oregon’s congressional Democrats voted against the war: Senator Ron Wyden and four Representatives. Most Americans opposed the invasion until they were tricked into believing we were a multinational coalition. Now that the war grinds on into its fifth year, the situation still “grave and deteriorating,” most Americans have turned against Bush and his few remaining Congressional allies.

Who cares even about that? I feel terrible for the troops, now getting news their tours have been extended to 15 months. In Vietnam, we knew our DEROS: “Date Returned from Overseas.” Mine was May 2, 1969. Every day I blacked out one more date on my calendar. When you had a month or less, you were short. Shortimers didn’t take shit.

I feel even worse for the Iraqis, the vast majority of which want us to leave now. Fifty-thousand Iraqis a month leave Iraq, most of them from the more educated professional classes who have decided it’s time to DEROS themselves out of there while they still can. Soon, only the cannibals will be left.

I admit I stopped watching the Perle propaganda film half way through and went to bed to read a fluffy novel. I needed some time to get my mind back.

For someone who devours news,opinion, and analysis, I’m lately spending less and less time on anything related to current affairs. The war will go on just as it has until Bush leaves office. Someone else will have to seek for a way to disengage. Not redeploy. Get the fuck out. And then the fighting will go on for another century or so, and back here, everybody will be blaming somebody else for losing Iraq.

Any chance I could be wrong about all this? I can only say to myself that I’ve been right so far. I know I won’t live long enough to see it all play out.