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THE
ROACH HOTEL
Posted November 14, 2003 thepeoplesvoice.org
By
Dan Dvorak
When Saddam said he will DESTROY the Americans if they invaded
Iraq
everyone laughed at him out loud thinking those were the ramblings of a
mad man. Certainly we pictured a tiny group of his fabled Republican guard
armed only with AK-47s and a few SAMs attempting to repel the greatest and
finest fighting machine in the history of the world. The laugh was on us.
What
has actually occurred resembles an advertisement of a few years ago for
the ROACH
HOTEL. You remember it, plenty
of arrivals, no departures! They let us in easy enough but they
won’t let us out. Soldiers hid their conventional weapons (because they
had no WMD) stripped off their uniforms and dressed like everyone else
while they blended in to the crowds.
The
military was perplexed. Where did they go? Gee, that was easy! Bush
himself declared an end to the fighting (later changed to MAJOR fighting)
and beamed “mission accomplished!” A little premature Mr. Resident!
From
the beginning the Iraqis defense of its country was strange. There was
some resistance but it was mostly non existent. This was attributed to the
superior capabilities of U.S. forces and their “shock and awe”
strategy and of course the fact that we have been bombing that country for
years, knocking out air defenses and sitting aircraft (they had zero
aircraft while we were in total control of the skies) while limiting the
area Iraq could fly in and choking off their supply of arms and virtually
everything else under the U.S. led embargo. The plan all the long, even
before Bush II was to soften them up so they were sitting ducks and
practically defenseless. It’s always best to make war on defenseless
nations, countries that can’t fight back. So we rationalized that we
actually were that good and they were really that bad.
Make
no mistake;
Iraq
’s best days were long past. Not since the late 80’s was Saddam
anything even close to a power. In fact, even with help of the US, the UK
and an arsenal of American biological weapons they still couldn’t defeat
the rag tag ‘military’ of Iran who themselves were devastated by civil
war. None of his neighbors were afraid of him. His stated ‘danger’ to
the US and his neighbors was a sham of epic proportions, but a sham bought
hook, line and sinker by the American public thanks to the compliant and
obedient media who not only distorted the truth but helped create the
‘truth’ and the myth.
Saddam
knew it was only a matter of time before he was to be made an example of,
and when Bush II was installed as president he was doomed. Although he had
no WMD he had plenty of time to prepare for the invasion. Knowing he had
no chance in direct conflict with the
U.S.
or anyone else for that matter he planned the only way he had available to
him. Let them in (he didn’t have much choice) put up token resistance so
that the U.S. would think they had a cake walk, and close the door behind
us, knowing that once in, Bush would never leave without his oil. The plan
was to pick us off one by one, two by two and inflict a little Iraqi shock
and awe. The plan recognized that the
U.S.
citizens and the world as a whole would have no appetite for the death of
their own although they would care little about the number of Iraqis dead
and there would be some number of dead and wounded
U.S.
troops that would turn Americans against Bush and his invasion. Even if
Saddam was killed or captured, the plan and the country was ready and in
position to do the most damage to their foreign invaders and the plan
could be implemented at that point without Saddam or any one else in
particular, a most dangerous combination. The Arab world has absorbed so
much death and destruction over the centuries it has become their way of
life. They are not squeamish about death while Americans are.
It
would be easy for the plan to gain additional fighters because of the
death and destruction Bush would surely do, making revenge for the dead
children a natural enlistment technique. Certainly others from Muslim
countries would be attracted like a magnet although they hated Saddam and
his secular government; a chance to have
America
within some boundaries would be too good of an opportunity to pass up
especially in a hit and run situation. For the time being, they would bury
the religious hatchet and become brothers under the skin.
How
stupid those reporters must feel, you remember, the ones that were slumped
over with their air tight protective suits complete with gas masks, duct
tape and microphones as they were shot through night vision lenses, bright
green, grainy and out of focus, wind blown reports with a sense of urgency
equal to the assignation of President Kennedy, beamed to hundreds of
millions of people world wide, smoke filled background and nothing
happening behind him. Days went by and soon the tape came off, then the
masks, the long sleeves and before you knew it they started shooting in
daylight. They played the game to the hilt, scared the hell out of
everyone and wound up finding nada.
The
reporting was so ignorant in the beginning. A
U.S.
convoy was ambushed and a group of Generals on CNN were livid. “We will
find out who did this horrible thing and we will take good care of them.
Imagine Iraq being bombed for no reason and then invaded, thousands dead
or injured and the country in flames, hospitals destroyed and priceless
treasures looted and when they try to defend their country, they run the
risk of being hunted down like dogs! Can you imagine the nerve of this
administration and its military being incensed over citizens of a country
under attack having the gall to try to defend itself? Maybe there wasn’t
supposed to be any resistance left. Where were the flowers and dates?
So
now the Iraqis have us right where they want us. They have Bush where they
want him too, refusing to send additional troops, extending tour of duty
on existing troops reducing morale to below zero, dissatisfaction at home
in the U.S. at an all time high with its citizens finally aware of the
folly of Bush and company and the daily body count of dead and wounded
Americans border lining on catastrophic. Even the blackout on arriving
dead soldiers and the secrecy of wounded Americans can’t shield our
country from the ugly truth. Then there is the $150B price tag “so
far” and indications of re-instating the draft, all while investigations
abound with evidence that we have bombed the wrong country, and that
Iraq
was guilty of nothing.
Now
we are in the unenviable position of not being able to leave even if we
wanted to because it has finally sunk in that we are responsible for the
horrific damage we have caused to an innocent nation and the instability
we have caused will not allow independent
Iraq
. We now know why it was necessary for Saddam to rule with an iron fist.
We can’t stay and we can’t leave. Welcome to the Roach Hotel.
© Copyright 2003 All rights reserved by Dan Dvorak
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