Rumsfeld, 69, a former US Navy fighter pilot, was typically pugnacious and aggressive in tone, as ever prone to intemperate language (a frequent turn-off, which is why despite his ambition he never himself made it to the White House). During the years he and Dubyas dad, George Herbert Walker B., had been in the Gerry Ford Cabinet, this same Rumsfeld had denigrated Bush Sr. as a "lightweight" and a "weakling". In this light, being insulted by Rumsfeld today is par for the course.
On the other hand, Rumsfeld is dead wrong.
The media is right to report the looting, the trashing and pillaging of hotels, palaces, diplomatic missions, and government buildings, the raids by hoodlums and looters even on hospitals, the buildings set on fire, the bank robberies and street chaos, the ignored pleas of the harassed and fearful civilian population for "protection" from the US and British military even the murder, yes, murder of a pro-US and prominent Shiite cleric (just returned from exile in London) Abdulmajid al-Khoi inside the Ali mosque in the Holy Shiite city of Najaf.
In the latter case, the US-provided bodyguard of al-Khoi, the son of the late Ayatollah Sayed Abdul-Qasim al-Khoi, the former pre-eminent leader of Iraqs Shias, had remained outside the mosque in deference to religious sensitivities. Alas, in Iraq today there can be no sensitivities, whether religious or nettlesome: There must be order especially when there is still no "lawful" authority in place to replace the regime just toppled.
Theyre partially right when they claim that theyre soldiers, not "policemen", and their job remains unfinished theres still much fighting to be done, in the northern suburbs, in the drive towards Saddams final redoubt of Tikrit, in the many remaining pockets of resistance. But theyre not just soldiers: Theyre now, for all attempts at obfuscating that term, the occupying force.
And when youre the occupiers, its paramount that you have to prevent the area youre occupying from going to pieces, otherwise, everything including your own warriors and armor will be sucked into the collapsing crater.
Having "liberated" the Iraqi people and "saved" them from Saddams despotism, they now have the duty to save the population, especially from the abusive and vicious propensities of their fellow Iraqis whore taking advantage of the situation. And what about the many criminals suddenly released from Saddams jails? Theyre roaming around, terrorizing everybody. Armed bands are proliferating, and theyre out for loot, domination, and, surely, even women. If the Yanks and Brits dont begin to crack down hard on this rising tide of criminality, it will overwhelm everything in a tidal wave of violence and a complete breakdown of discipline.
Already, a tidal wave a veritable tsunami of worldwide condemnation is building up against the "indifference" of the Americans and Brits. Among the critics are those and they were few enough who once wholeheartedly supported the overthrow of Saddams tyranny and his weapons (still unfound) of mass destruction.
"Our only enemy is Saddams brutal regime, and that enemy is yours as well," President Bush had declared in a television address to the Iraqi people, delivered jointly with an equally reassuring message from British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The American President had promised the Iraqis in that TV speech: "We will help you build a peaceful and representative government that protects the rights of all citizens. And then our military forces will leave."
Mr. Bush mark your words: The current chaos defies your "peaceful" intentions. If youre pledging to "protect the rights of all citizens," what about their present right to life, self-confidence in their survival through horrors of the day and night, the protection of their wounded, sick, and suffering in their now-being-hassled and looted hospitals, their terror at the torching of their neighborhoods? Your forces, in a lightning Blitzkrieg that stunned not only Saddams Republican Guard but the world, captured so many neighborhoods, buildings, and infrastructure intact. Now these are being burned down, destroyed, pillaged, their furniture and treasures ripped out: Rebuilding from scorched earth and ruins can only be fifty times more difficult and frustrating.
And what about rebuilding vanishing civilian confidence in Americas and Britains guarantees and capabilities?
Bush and Blair must act now. As commander-in-chief, Bush must order his soldiers to shoot the shit out of looters in Baghdad, Mosul, Kirkuk, and whenever they are spotted. Armed patrols must be sent out to hunt down criminal gangs and bring them to justice if you ask me, the rough justice of a bullet. A few public lynchings might send a more direct and effective message. As for the killers of that Islamic cleric, they have to be tracked down and executed. Tough times call for tough measures. If any law is to be effective, at this critical stage, it must be martial law.
The Chinese have an ancient proverb: "If you save a mans life, you are responsible for his life forever." If Bush and Blair saved the lives of the Iraqi people, they have to assume responsibility for them, too. If not for life, at least until they regain the ability to govern and defend their own lives.
Iraqs population is about 23 million. Of these, the Shiite Muslims, for three decades suppressed by Saddam and his Sunni overlords from Tikrit, comprise 55 percent of the population, or about 13 million. (Sunni Muslims compose 42 percent, or about 9.5 million). Chaldeans (Christians), Yazdis, and others constitute three percent, or about 690,000.
Thus, the Shiites are critical of any new "democracy" if possible in Iraq.
To complete the picture, lets break Iraqs population down into ethnic groups this time: The Arabs (Shiites and Sunnis combined) constitute 73.5 percent, or some 17 million. The Kurds whose peshmerga forces liberated Mosul and Kirkuk alongside the Americans in the north are five million strong, or about 21.6 percent. Turkmens or Turcomen (of Turkish race) represent 2.4 percent or 550,000. Assyrians and other minorities represent 2.5 percent, or about 565,000.
Who was the victims father? He was Grand Ayatollah Abu al-Qasim al-Khoie, the most revered Shiite cleric who had tried to restore peace and order in 1991 when the Shiites rebelled against Saddam in Najaf at the tail-end of Operation Desert Storm and the Gulf War, believing that the elder Bush and the American-led "coalition" at that time would push into Iraq to rescue them and overthrow Saddam. They were, instead, massacred by the scores of thousands. (Najaf, next only to Mecca or Makkah and Medina in Saudi Arabia, is to Shiites the third holiest city of Islam.)
At the time, Ayatollah al-Khoie was a sickly 91 years of age. Saddams internal security men, when they regained control of Najaf, had forced the Ayatollah and his son into a car and taken them to Baghdad. There, the Ayatollah was compelled to appear on TV and denounce the Shiite uprising, which, as in Palestine, they called the intifadah. Then they slapped him into detention in a well-guarded house in Kufa, where he died not long afterwards "of old age".
Whats more, on the day of the Ayatollahs funeral (August 9, 1992), the Iraqi government cut off all telephone communications to Najaf, imposed a curfew which restricted the movement of the hundreds of thousands of would-be mourners, and confined the burial rites to a brief private family ceremony.
Baghdad continued to oppress and murder leaders of the Shia clergy such as another Grand Ayatollah, Muhammad Sadeq al-Sadr, and his two sons, who were gunned down in Najaf. Saddam had his own huge portraits placed in the Iman Ali mosque to dominate all the other mosques in the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala.
Now the word is out on the Arab street that if the Americans couldnt protect al-Khoei (spelled al-Khoi in most news dispatches), they cant protect anybody. So have a care, general. If theres anything Arabs respect as I discovered in my past dealings and forays into the Middle East (although limited enough in scope) its strength. If theres anything they despise, and take advantage of, its weakness.
Three days ago, with their forces and tanks rampaging victoriously all over the place, and their aircraft, flying 30,000 sorties, were blasting everything in their path, the Americans and their British allies looked strong. Now, helpless to curb the looting and the roving mobs (scattering even banknotes in their wake), theyre beginning to look weak.
Indecisiveness and sanamagan, lets admit it sometimes a lack of "ruthlessness" are what provoke Arab scorn.
Americas founding fathers declared at the birth of their nation that all men are entitled to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". Unless the Americans uphold those ideals to the Iraqi people, they will have waged a war in vain. And their flag will have brought pain, unhappiness, disappoinment and not liberty.