This week we learned that American forces are using attack helicopters in Iraq and likely Syria. The gruesomely named “Apache” helicopters (strange custom, naming weapon systems after people we’ve wiped out) have been used in several strikes over the past week. This is a subtle ratcheting up of the war effort in the Middle East; pretty much the Obama doctrine with respect to bringing the public along on these overseas adventures. Start with vehement assurances of “no boots on the ground”, then put a hundred “advisers” in, followed by a hundred more, then five hundred, then fifteen hundred, then bombing raids in Iraq, then Syria, then drones, and now helicopter gunships.
ISIS and related fighters have been shooting helicopters down. What happens when they hit one of our ships? Boots on the ground. You don’t have to be Kreskin (or Criswelll) to see that we may well be embroiled in a regional ground war within the next few months. This may make our previous conflicts look like a folk dance; the more we hit ISIS, the more people on the ground and from other countries flock to their side. Put yourself in the shoes of a Sunni citizen of Iraq. Who has contributed more to your misery over the past 25 years? You may dislike the ISIS fanatics, but you likely hate us with a rare passion. Not a formula for success.
Jeremy Scahill of The Intercept made a good point the other day on Democracy Now! The leader of ISIS was held prisoner in Iraq by our military, likely abused, even tortured. Their video executions are re-creations of their own experiences in places like Abu Ghraib. Their victims are in orange jumpsuits; they seem calm because they’ve probably been through dozens of mock executions, just like our detainees. They use these powerful images to goad us into another war. The last one almost destroyed the U.S. imperial project; ISIS seems to know that, and they want us to do it again.
I wish just one … just one politician could be honest enough with the American people to say, look, folks, we shouldn’t have invaded Iraq and smashed it to bits; if recent history has taught us anything, it’s that Iraq is a complex society, and sometimes the things we break cannot be put together again.
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