Americans Have a Romantic Idea of War

And true stories coming out of Iraq are trampling that romantic idea. The American idea is that soldiers are not only fierce, loyal and brave, but they have a code of honor that keeps them from engaging in ungentlemanly behavior such as shooting people in the back, raping and killing women, killing children and torturing the enemy. However, the men who train our soldiers have to teach them that in the heat of battle you do what you have to do. And doing what you have to do may involve shooting people in the back, killing women and children and torturing the enemy. The raping of women is left to the soldiers’ discretion. The top American commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., has been given the unenviable job of perpetuating the American romantic idea of war. Casey said on Fox News yesterday that the allegation that our soldiers had beaten Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was “boloney”. I have no idea if Zarqawi was beaten or not. But I do know for a fact that it is absolutely within the realm of possibility that Zarqawi was beaten. And I know that because the fascists in the White House started a war in Iraq, and our soldiers have been trained to fight this war in the way all wars are fought: DO WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO DO in order to win the battle. If there were the remote chance that Zarqawi was alive and that he had information that the Americans wanted, of course they would try to beat it out of him. And why not? That’s war. That’s what the insurgents and members of Al-Qaeda would do to Americans and that’s what Americans have been trained to do to insurgents, guerillas, Al-Qaeda and the enemy in general. It may be that General Casey is denying in good faith the fact that Zarqawi was beaten. But since the idiots in the White House have put the United States and our soldiers in the position of fighting an unnecessary war, at some point Americans are going to have to grow up and understand what fighting a war means. The lily-livered Bush administration wanted to play soldier. And the ones who wanted to play soldier the most were men who had avoided serving in any war. Let us never forget, the following list of men never served in any war: President George W. Bush Vice President Dick Cheney Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey Former House Majority Leader Tom Delay House Majority Whip Roy Blunt Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist Majority Whip Mitch McConnell Rick Santorum, third ranking Republican in the Senate Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott Former Attorney General John Ashcroft Florida Governor Jeb Bush White House Senior Advisor Karl Rove We’ve been forced to fight a stupid war by men who never fought in a war. And our men are being trained to fight this war the way all wars are fought. It is ridiculous for military men to deny how wars are fought in order to pander to the romantic, unrealistic and childish ideas of Americans, most of whom have never known war. And by the way, all you people who want us to keep on fighting in Iraq and want more soldiers to go to Iraq, you do know what war does to men, right? Not only may they come back horribly wounded and broken physically, but also they will be forever damaged by what they’ve seen and what they’ve been required to do.