A Fool's Errand

Bob Herbert tells the truth. Bob Herbert has courage and integrity. He blew the whistle on the shameful miscarriage of justice in Tulia, TX (45 miles south of Amarillo) when a sleazeball undercover narc fingered 46 people (mostly African-American in nearly all-white Tulia) and most of them went to the slammer under plea-bargains to get out earlier. Herbert's series — deserving the Pulitzer Prize — forced the Department of Justice to intervene. Only then did an inquiry occur. The result was conviction of the narc for perjury and the release of the Tulia victims. Texas officialdom from Swisher County all of the way to Austin is covered in shame. No other officials have been held accountable for this crime against humanity. It took Bob Herbert in New York City (a Texas sneer) to do what the newspapers in Amarillo and Tulia would not do: turn over the rock and expose the maggots.

Now, Bob Herbert has turned his white-hot gaze on Iraq. W and his gang are begging the UN to intervene in Iraq. W and his gang gave the UN the finger as they marched on Baghdad. Now, they don't want to go it alone. Bring 'em on! Those words alone ought to be an impeachable offense. W has brought 'em on. Unfortunately, he's not in harm's way. He's in Crawford, TX — workin' hard for you and me — on a golf course during a war. W and Rummy are begging Old Europe to pitch in and clean up our mess. I remember President Gerald R. Ford's response to NYC's request for a federal bailout during its fiscal crisis in the mid-70s: Go to hell! That is what W is going to hear from all of this Old Europe friends in the UN: Go to hell! Unfortunately for us, he will take all of us with him. If this be (fair & balanced) treason, make the most of it.

[x NYTimes]

August 21, 2003

A Price Too High

By BOB HERBERT

How long is it going to take for us to recognize that the war we so foolishly started in Iraq is a fiasco — tragic, deeply dehumanizing and ultimately unwinnable? How much time and how much money and how many wasted lives is it going to take?

At the United Nations yesterday, grieving diplomats spoke bitterly, but not for attribution, about the U.S.-led invasion and occupation. They said it has not only resulted in the violent deaths of close and highly respected colleagues, but has also galvanized the most radical elements of Islam.

"This is a dream for the jihad," said one high-ranking U.N. official. "The resistance will only grow. The American occupation is now the focal point, drawing people from all over Islam into an eye-to-eye confrontation with the hated Americans.

"It is very propitious for the terrorists," he said. "The U.S. is now on the soil of an Arab country, a Muslim country, where the terrorists have all the advantages. They are fighting in a terrain which they know and the U.S. does not know, with cultural images the U.S. does not understand, and with a language the American soldiers do not speak. The troops can't even read the street signs."

The American people still do not have a clear understanding of why we are in Iraq. And the troops don't have a clear understanding of their mission. We're fighting a guerrilla war, which the bright lights at the Pentagon never saw coming, with conventional forces.

Under these circumstances, in which the enemy might be anybody, anywhere, tragedies like the killing of Mazen Dana are all but inevitable. Mr. Dana was the veteran Reuters cameraman who was blown away by jittery U.S. troops on Sunday. The troops apparently thought his video camera was a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

The mind plays tricks on you when you're in great danger. A couple of weeks ago, in an apparent case of mistaken identity, U.S. soldiers killed two members of the Iraqi police. And a number of innocent Iraqi civilians, including children, have been killed by American troops.

The carnage from riots, ambushes, firefights, suicide bombings, acts of sabotage, friendly fire incidents and other deadly encounters is growing. And so is the hostility toward U.S. troops and Americans in general.

We are paying a terribly high price — for what?

One of the many reasons Vietnam spiraled out of control was the fact that America's top political leaders never clearly defined the mission there, and were never straight with the public about what they were doing. Domestic political considerations led Kennedy, then Johnson, then Nixon to conceal the truth about a policy that was bankrupt from the beginning. They even concealed how much the war was costing.

Sound familiar?

Now we're lodged in Iraq, in the midst of the most volatile region of the world, and the illusion of a quick victory followed by grateful Iraqis' welcoming us with open arms has vanished. Instead of democracy blossoming in the desert, we have the reality of continuing bloodshed and heightened terror — the payoff of a policy spun from fantasies and lies.

Senator John McCain and others are saying the answer is more troops, an escalation. If you want more American blood shed, that's the way to go. We sent troops to Vietnam by the hundreds of thousands. There were never enough.

Beefing up the American occupation is not the answer to the problem. The American occupation is the problem. The occupation is perceived by ordinary Iraqis as a confrontation and a humiliation, and by terrorists and other bad actors as an opportunity to be gleefully exploited.

The U.S. cannot bully its way to victory in Iraq. It needs allies, and it needs a plan. As quickly as possible, we should turn the country over to a genuine international coalition, headed by the U.N. and supported in good faith by the U.S.

The idea would be to mount a massive international effort to secure Iraq, develop a legitimate sovereign government and work cooperatively with the Iraqi people to rebuild the nation.

If this does not happen, disaster will loom because the United States cannot secure and rebuild Iraq on its own.

A U.N. aide told me: "The United States is the No. 1 enemy of the Muslim world, and right now it's sitting on the terrorists' doorstep. It needs help. It needs friends."

Copyright © 2003 The New York Times Company