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April 07, 2004
Peace in our time?
The war in Iraq is officially over. Or is it? More troops are being sucked into the conflict all the time, and the violence simply seems to escalate. Is there something we are all missing here? Is there perhaps something we need to pause and consider?
My own response to the horrific images of the civilian aid workers being mutilated and burned filled me with a "righteous" rage - nuke them 'til they glow! Wipe the entire damned nation from the face of the earth as a warning to anyone else with such a contempt for decency! Yet, would that solve anything? Would it not merely serve to prove that the West simply wanted to preserve its lifestyle at the cost of everyone else? Would it not lower us all to the level of the murderous mob?
Yes it would.
Believe me when I say that I am still certain that it was right to remove Saddam and his murderous henchmen. What has gone wrong is that we do not understand the culture which produced him. We do not understand the needs and desires of the men and women who live and work in Iraq and other countries like this. We do not understand their pride and their desire to live their way, under a government of their choice - and I use that word with qualification! - and not one seen as "imposed" or "approved" by someone else.
Essentially this is a tribal society, and such a society is fraught with tensions. There are familial bonds, tribal bonds, and religious bonds. The state is not separated from religion; it must live within it - especially in a culture such as that which pervades the Middle East. The history of the region is a very chequered one, too, and the mix of tribes is compounded by the imposition of "national" boundaries, which owe more to politics than to history. And, as we have seen in the Balkans, if you remove a strong and dictatorial leadership/government, however oppressive, it is not unlike suddenly opening a valve on a vessel holding a liquefied gas - it immediately boils up to vapourisation.
History is a teacher that often comes back to bite, and Iraq is a good example. Look back at the history of the 1920's and 30's under British Rule. The RAF bombed tribesmen, and the Army fought them on the ground. We held things in some sort of check for as long as we could, but eventually gave it up as a totally unwinable situation. We had mastery in weapons of destruction, we could shoot far more of them than they could of our people, but we could not gain complete mastery of the ground - and that is what finishes wars, not merely occuppying territory or controlling the organs of state. Ask the Austrian rulers of the Balkans, ask the Russian governors of Chetchinya or Khazakstan. Ask the Japanese about Korea or Manchuria. Ask us about Aden and the Yemen! There does come a point where the military solution is no longer an answer in itself; there needs to be a winning of hearts and minds and in this we are failing dismally.
Sometimes war has to be fought. It is never clean, it is never clinical, and attrocities will happen during the conflict - in a sense, in the rage of battle it is impossible to control it completely. Wellington never forgot or forgave, entirely, the behavuiour of his troops in the storming of Badajoz in the Peninsula War. The problem is, once the last "military" action has been fought, the final set piece blown away, you now have to occupy not just the territory, but the hearts and minds of those you have just beaten as well. You can do it by oppression, or you can do it by partnership, by incorporating their structures and their people into any new arrangement.
Once the ground has been won, the role of the military (and its attitudes to the people!) needs to change very rapidly. It needs to become a police force - there when needed - supporting a truly enormous push to replace aid structures, health services, housing, and above all hope of self rule. This is where the followers of al Sadr have beaten us into a corner - his people were out on the streets setting this up before we had even gotten our helmets off and the smoke and dust cleared. While we argued about who should police the territory and who should not, this guy was organising aid and services to those in dire need. While we were still talking about what was needed and what to do about it - he had it organised and running. No wonder he has such a strong following.
OK, so he wants us out. Well, don't we want out as well? Or are we only prepared to leave if we are satisfied that we have set up a form of government that is alien to this part of the world? Ask your self when the "democratic" tradition was first introduced there. Did it previously operate in the tribal system? Did it operate under the Turkish Ottoman Empire? Did it ever operate there at all? So why do we expect them to be able to adopt, without any development of their own systems for dealing with it, the extremely sophisticated system we have developed for ourselves over barely three hundred years? Even now, our own system is far from perfect!
If we are to find a solution to the madness that is descending on the people of Iraq, we need to put in place less of a kneejerk reaction to their frustrations and much more in the way of using them to find the solutions. Repugnant as it may be to actually talk to al Sadr, perhaps a better solution would be to get him round the table and to make him responsible for the setting up of relief for all the people. Of course there are dangers in this, but the alternative is to stand off in little enclaves and bomb the country to death by degrees with our superior weapons and fire power. Which is better? At the end of the day we and the Iraqi people want the same thing - a country that is stable, at peace with itself and well governed. We cannot achieve that by force, it has to be achieved by some positive action to move forward, or we will simply preside over the tiotal destruction of goodwill and hope alongside that of the entire country and its people.
We cannot allow that to happen. If our arrogance is getting in the way, perhaps it is time to try a different tack, a different team - one which does not compound our ignorance of the Iraqi people and their aspirations with our arrogant assumption that we have the best system for everyone.
The writer of the show Babylon 5 put a telling line in the mouth of an alien character in one of the spin-off movies. Addressing an arrogant and bombastic Earth Force General he says "How economical you humans are - arrogance and ignorance in the same package! I just hope that it is not to be your downfall as well!"
The mindset in Iraq at the moment seems to be heading that way on both sides. Can we not find a way to draw back, draw in the people who are so inflamed about what they see as our bid to dominate them, and find a way to work with them to realise their hopes and dreams rather than ours? It may be that our objectives can be achieved simply by listening to their solutions to what are, after all, their problems.
As Easter approaches, pray for all the troops who have such a superhuman task to perform, pray for the leaders on both sides that they can put aside prejudice and work together, and pray for those killed, injured, and the mourners on both sides. This is not about Christianity versus Islam, it is about caring what happens to people, about caring for all those drawn into this mess, and for all the victims of oppression everywhere. It is about trying to live up to the true teachings of both the Christian and Muslim traditions which are that men should live in peace, harmony, and justice.
Let us all pray for that.
Posted by The Gray Monk at April 7, 2004 08:39 AM
Comments
The voices of reason do not get heard over the tumult in Iraq because it suits the purposes of the extremists to ensure the majority of Iraqis are kept in mortal fear, aided and abetted in that quest by a media more intent upon wreaking domestic political havoc than telling the truth.
Posted by: MommaBear at April 7, 2004 03:37 PM
San Jose News has some reports of a sunni and shiite muslims joining their forces to fight Americans. I hope this isn't true but I have no doubt that it is possible, part of the enemy of my enemy is my friend thing. The question is has over 50% of the population joined the fight or is this just extremists
Posted by: Matthew at April 8, 2004 01:32 AM
So far seems to be just the extremists - but they have enough nasty means at their disposal to force anyone to do most things. As I said, my initial instinct is creat a desert wasteland - totally. But, then my Christian priciples kick in ....
Posted by: The Gray Monk at April 8, 2004 11:25 AM
It is a very small percentage fighting. Iraq has a population of some 5 million, and less than 30k are actively resisting.
It's the extremists pushing events right now because they want the coalition forces to leave so that they can institute an Islamic government like Iran.
To understand them, you only have to believe what they tell us. They want the entire world to be Islamic. And if we will not convert, then we will die. They repeat it often, but we don't want to see it in such white & black terms, therefore it must be 'our' failure to understand them.
Posted by: Ted at April 8, 2004 04:14 PM