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May 9, 2004

Who's gonna "drive the bus" in Iraq? 

So would the Iraqis just be happier if Saddam was back in charge?

Well, the answer to that one is - of course - no. But it's becoming more apparent that they need SOMEBODY over there who knows how to kick a few asses.

As this Iraq thing moves forward, America seems hell-bent on giving them a democracy. I'm all for that.... but it shouldn't be OUR democracy. It should probably be more British.

I know. You're scratching your head saying "Has the jarhead lost his damn mind?" No. Hear me out.

A democratic MONARCHY is just what these people need. It's what they understand. You say "president" to an Iraqi, he might not be able to wrap his brain around the idea. But a King/Sheik... now THAT he gets.

This was not fully clear to me until about three days ago when two things happened: I met special forces officer and got an email from my cousin in Iraq. Both had the same conclusion. While the exact words of the SpecOps guy have faded, I can give you the nitty-gritty from my cuz:

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What CNN shows...kids being injured, constant fighting and American's breaking "cease fires." That is about it. Oh ya, and chaos everywhere. ([/sarcasm] - Mike)

Let me tell you what we experience. Mortars that hit 500m or more away are not close by, in fact the threat is minimal. We haven't had any mortars or rockets here in quite a while. I have seen some pictures from other camps of them hitting buildings and these walls are so thick that the damage is minimal. The biggest threat is out on the roads for convoy. The stuff you are seeing on the news is concentrated in a very very small area of the country. If you see that innocent people are being injured, what you don't see is the terrorists using their own family members as shields, they place the women and children in front of them and fire around them. Or, they use them to provide an opportunity to draw out a soldier and kill him with a sniper rifle. CNN is actually replaying a small arms attack over and over again like it is a bunch of different battles. It was a short engagement that was over quickly. Any fire that we are dishing out right now is reactionary to the cease fire violations that are occurring regularly in Fallujah.

These people, I can see now why they need a dictator. It is a common thing around here to kill your neighbor if you don't like him...so why would they feel any different about foreign occupiers? This is a different culture we are dealing with here. They don't deal with each other peacefully, and no matter who comes in to try and create peace, they won't deal with them peacefully either...it is not in their rule book.

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The point, I'm trying to make is this: while giving Iraq a democracy may be the way to go, if anybody thinks that the final product is going to look like the good ol' US of A, they're on crack. These people respect power. Iraqis would probably be more comfortable with a "benevolent" Mafia Don, because that's what they know and respect. Anything less will just come across as weak.

Last word of advice from my cousin: "If you want to really see accurate updates of what the Marines are doing then go to www.usmc.mil for info, not CNN."
Posted by: Mike the Marine / 09:26
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