Iraq and Afghanistan

Recent days have seen recurrent attacks on our forces and on government forces in Iraq, some bloodier than others. But more alarming, reporters are continuing to report widespread hatred of American soldiers, even within Shi’a areas. Reporters who have recently talked to new recruits in the Iraq’s police and military units tell reporters they hate Americans and would gladly fight them. We should consider once again why this might to so.

President Bush believes that he is offering the Iraqi people freedom and democracy. He cannot understand why they will not accept these gifts because in his mind these are what all people want. However, while Bush speaks of democracy, the average Iraqi may see something else. First, he may see an occupation that threatens to take his homeland away from him. We say this is silly, but our judgement is not there’s. They have been occupied before, by the Ottomans, the Persians, and the British. It is not impossible to understand that we are just another power in this tradition. Second, they see us as Christians invading a Muslim land. We are in this sense desecrating holy land, putting down Islam while raising up Christianity as the more successful religion. (Certainly this is the way the ancient Israelites viewed their wars, their victories and defeats.) Third, when we say that we are bringing democracy and freedom this means little to a people who have never lived with these. It is easy for them to believe these are mere slogans. They know that we are bringing modernism, rationalism, and decadent ideas and behaviors from a sinful West. These changes may mean much more to them than the promise of democracy.

I have played with the idea of comparing what is happening in Iraq to our forces to what happened to Napoleon’s forces in Russia as reported in War and Peace. Napoleon easily conquered the most important parts of Russia and took Moscow in a walk. Yet his forces eventually had to leave and as they went home through the Russian winter they were destroyed. They were destroyed by a ragtag army that harried his forces all the way back. Much of their fighting might be called guerrilla war. It is important to realize that Napoleon also was bringing the modern world to Russia. Everywhere he went in Europe he established modern states with a new rule of law. It wasn’t democracy, but it was a new and superior political system. It guaranteed much more freedom to the average person than the systems it replaced. Yet the Russian peasants, ground down under the heel of oppressive tsars, resisted fiercely. They resisted because the invader threatened to destroy their way of life, to replace the Orthodox Church (or so they thought). The French were outsiders who did not belong in Russia, so they were attacked and attacked until the last one had left the country. The situation is different now (we have better supply routes and equipment for one thing). Yet there are some similarities that we should take to heart.