Chris Albritton has written a compelling account of his first three weeks back in Iraq, and the disturbing differences in the atmosphere of the place and the attitudes of the Iraqis he has encountered. Also striking is his experience with some American soldiers who ended up screaming at him as they pointed their weapons at him.
After describing the chaos of the day the CPA orchestrated the announcement of the New Puppets, Chris says:
No one knew who was in charge. The Iraqis, inexperienced at managing the logistics of the day, were overwhelmed. The CPA people just wanted to get the hell out of there. There were attacks throughout the day. The Iraqi Civil Defense Corps troops were merely window dressing, with the real security provided by beefy South Africans private contractors. U.S. troops hung around getting in everyone’s way.
It was an almost perfect metaphor for the New Iraq.
I write this not as a plea for pity or understanding. I don’t understand this country myself, so that may be impossible. And I know I have written things that will anger people: I am ashamed of many of the emotions I feel these days. But I care about the truth as best as I can see and tell it. I once believed that telling the truth — or a small part of it — could help the world. It could help people understand things better and thus make the world better. But this war defies comprehension. It’s so stupid and there seems to be no point to anything that happens here. People die on a daily basis in random, terrifying attacks. And for what? Freedom? Stability? Peace? There is none of that here and it’s likely there won’t be after the Americans leave. Iraq has spiraled into a dark place, much worse than where it was a year ago during the war. There is no freedom from the fear that is stoked by mutual hatred, cynicism and an apprehension about the future. So what if one side has superior firepower? Every bullet fired helps kill souls on both sides of this war, whether it hits flesh or lands harmlessly.
We — Iraqis and the Americans here — are caged by fear, and we are all conquered people now.
Earlier in his post, Chris concludes that the Americans should just pull out, but he also says that the Iraqis aren’t “ready to run their own country.” I disagree because I think Chris is just buying the general American line that a new “government” must rule Iraq and that such an institution can be created and imposed. The Americans really need to believe that they can both fix and improve what they’ve destroyed, but that is impossible. Clearly, the neocons who planned to “decapitate Saddam’s regime” and replace it with a shiny new western-style democracy would have been wise to heed the words of Hayek:
The recognition of the insuperable limits to his knowledge ought indeed to teach the student of society a lesson in humility which should guard him against becoming an accomplice in men’s fatal striving to control society – a striving which makes him not only a tyrant over his fellows, but which may well make him the destroyer of a civilization which no brain has designed but which has grown from the free efforts of millions of individuals.
The sooner the Americans get out of their way, the sooner the Iraqi people can organize their own Iraqi solution to the predicament in which the Americans have placed them.