Man's Inhumanity

The April 1st San Francisco Chronicle's headline says "Horror at Faluja." Four American contractors were killed by Iraqi gunmen; the bodies were burned, defiled, and strung up on a bridge. The American newscasts have been repeating the newscycle since last night.

This episode makes me wonder at the gift of America for self-delusion. What did we as a nation and a people expect from a war? Did we as a nation think that just because America says that the war is over that the resistance will cease? The very presence of Americans in Iraq will continue to prod the Iraqis into resistance whether or not the Iraqis sympathized with Saddam Hussein or not.

Another aspect that this horror brings up is how America gives more value to American lives than to an Iraqi life. Three thousand people die at the World Trade Center; America goes to war. Less than 10,000 American soldiers have died in Iraq. Compare that number to the amount of Iraqis killed. It is with great admiration that I look upon the ability of America and Amerians to be horrified at the defilement of burned bodies and at the same time rationalize away the fact that a missile killing Iraqi civilians is also a very horrible event.

The Americans killed were contract workers who provided security. To me, this means that the men killed were knowledgeable soldiers. They were capitalists working in Iraq to make money. They knew that there was a war. They knew the risk. I will not be horrified at the way their bodies were treated. I will however rejoice at the fact that here in America, you can legally make money from a war by becoming a contract security guard.

If I was working in Iraq as a contract security guard, I would be riding a tank.

By the way, infraternammeam asked me if I would let the soldiers die in Iraq. Yes, I would because we are already in the damned country and participating in the war. To pull out prematurely is to repeat the mistake that Bush the First made in the first gulf war. I don't want a third gulf war to happen. Let's finish what we started. Get Iraq a democratic government. It is only the politics of Bush trying to get re-elected that we are even thinking of pulling out. Bush is a wimp. He never served in Vietnam.