Now, it’s the middle of the night, and I’m a bit foggy, so what is likely to follow is not likely my best work, but a few preliminary thoughts are in order.
First off, I think viewing it as pro-war, or even as propaganda is stupid. It did not explain or rationalize our involvement in Iraq in the slightest. On the contrary, it showed us clearly as the invaders we were, driving tanks down Iraqi roads, and kicking down Iraqi doors, and handcuffing and sometimes shooting Iraqis who wanted to resist our presence violently. This is the text of the movie. That is what is shown.
And it shows the cost of ordinary Iraqis in trying to help Americans. The boy who is power drilled to death, and the father who was shot, for collaboration: that sort of thing happened.
And I watch this and wonder how we could have been so foolish as to believe that the Iraqis would welcome an invading Army with open arms. Yes, people like me repeated the atrocities of the Hussein’s often, the rape rooms, the violent suppression of the Shia in the south, cutting people into pieces and stuffing them into bags, the torture chambers, the gas attacks on the Kurds.
With regard to the Kurds, he killed perhaps 50,000 people. With regard to the Shiite uprising, it is unclear. Let us put that number also at 50,000, although it does not appear that high.
The lowest number I can find with regard to Iraqi deaths is 110,000. Some put the number as high as a million. You have to factor in both Iraqis who chose to oppose us, either as regular military or paramilitary, as well as the Al Quedists who caused so much death among those unlucky enough to be caught in the crossfire. They created a hell on Earth for a few years, and arguably won the war for us.
So does it make sense for us to have killed more Iraqis than Saddam did in order to protect them from him? I can’t honestly say that it does.
And of course drilling elbows and knees is barbaric, Cutting off body parts, decapitating children: these are horrific. We shudder at this sort of thing. But what do bombs do? If your limbs are leaving your body, and your soul this benighted world, the difference to the person affected is, I would submit, largely academic. We do not INTENTIONALLY dismember people, but that is the outcome nonetheless. Children too.
I was on the internet somewhere in 2003, arguing that America was attacked on 9/11 because even though we have BY FAR the most powerful military on the planet, no one takes us seriously because our halls of government have been so thoroughly infiltrated with people who fundamentally hate this country. Lacking credibility is lacking the capacity for deterrence, which in turn makes it more likely that if someone like Saddam Hussein gets nukes, he is more likely to use them to blackmail us and our allies. That is a justification for war, or so I saw it.
And I do think it worth resurrecting for the public record his open admission, when caught, that he fully intended to start up his nuclear program again. The war obviously prevented that.
But was it worth the cost?
First off, my ENTIRE world view changed when I realized that 9/11 involved a much larger conspiracy, one not likely Al Queda affiliated. As I have said repeatedly, the bombs could have been detonated without the planes, resulting in far higher casualties. Also, any group with the sophistication to get those bombs in those buildings undetected would easily have been able to carry out more attacks. Attacking Americans is child’s play, as the snipers shortly after 9/11 demonstrated. We are an open society.
And as should be obvious, I am slowly coming around to the view that the most likely suspects are members of the Bush Administration, who mounted a false flag, in the belief that something like this was needed to get things like the Patriot Act passed that they viewed as critical for protecting America from even more deadly WMD’s. I don’t like this idea, but the reality is that SOMEBODY put those explosives there, and must have done so with the more or less tacit approval and cooperation of those providing security for those buildings.
So I return to Chris Kyle, and I cannot say unambiguously that his work, his sacrifices, his unrelenting efforts did in fact protect American freedom. Our enemies seem to be in the gates. I have nothing but respect and affection for our nations warriors, but they are much better people than those “leading” us.
I don’t know what THE solution is, but I have resolved to actually start some work I have been postponing. A truly free people, using their freedom, acts as a self organizing system far more powerful, in potential, than the authorities running the thing. In China they have 180,000 protests and riots a year. Imagine what they could do if they were armed.
There is reason for optimism, but we must work hard daily to remain alert and aware, and to speak as much truth to as many people as we can, every day.
I have often said that the way to remember fallen warriors is to dedicate ourselves to the freedom in whose name they gave their lives. It does not matter if Iraq was in fact worth it. What matters is that freedom was and is worth it.