During the build-up to the War of Aggression and Colonization of Iraq, the
parallel build up of the anti-war movement was evident. In San Francisco,
posters were pasted onto street side poles advising the public to gather at a
certain place at such and such a time if the bombs started falling. And
that is exactly what happened. San Francisco was virtually shut down by
masses of furious citizens who opposed the war.
And then the major combat operations ended and so did the protests.
But the war in Iraq goes on. Like a basketball game in which one coach uses
a slow-down tactic to give his team a chance to win, the Iraqi resistance
has adopted tactics to give themselves the best chance to win. There is no
time clock in a war of this nature. In the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese
patriots were willing to fight as long as it took to win, ignoring their own
high casualties, but minimizing them as much as possible by dispersing
forces to avoid American firepower. The Iraqis seem to have learned from
the Vietnamese victory.
Iraqi patriots knew from the beginning that they could not withstand full
frontal assaults by American forces with unlimited air superiority from jet
fighter/bombers, combined with helicopter gun-ships and subsonic aircraft
like A-10 Warthog aircraft spewing thousands of rounds of munitions per
minute. Iraqis knew from the start that they could not face American M-1
tanks in tank to tank combat. So, the Iraqis bluffed and they blustered and
played psychological games and then they did the sensible thing -- they
dispersed and reverted to guerilla tactics, to exploit American weaknesses
and minimize their own casualties and give themselves a chance to win. And
Iraqis are killing more Americans now on a weekly basis than they did during
major combat operations.
So, more Americans are dying now, but the anti-war movement seems to have
packed its bags and gone on to bigger and better things. Is it due to a
short American attention span? Can Americans sustain anything that is not
financially profitable or titillating? The American military troops would
surely get the hell out of Iraq right now if their superiors did not force
them to be there. They now know the dangers they face, and they do not like
it. "We are like sitting ducks", one soldier said. And every day or so,
another home-made bomb or rocket-propelled grenade hits a convoy and erases
the life of another American soldier, sent to die so that George W. Bush and
his cronies can line their pocketbooks with power and petroleum revenues.
Again, where o' where have the protesters gone? What is the
threshold of
violence that causes you to rise up and take action? Will the impending
national Presidential election wake you up and cause you to take to the
streets? Will the losses of American lives be totally wasted, or will they
become meaningful because they cost George W. Bush the presidency in the
next election?
One street preacher was heard to say recently, in a paraphrasing of Holy
Scripture, "No man hath greater love of his country, than that he layeth
down his life so that George W. Bush could be removed from office."
Perhaps the protesters are gearing up again for major protests in
conjunction with the next election. Maybe they are organizing at their
local internet and coffee cafes and recharging with energy and spiritual
munitions.
Meanwhile three soldiers got killed in Iraq yesterday.
The writer is a member of several falconry and ornithological clubs and
organizations. He contributed above article to Media Monitors Network (MMN) from California, USA.
