Iraq: Freedom on the March (Backwards)

I want so badly to write about Big Ideas. But I feel--this week, anyway--that I need to present some dark facts about Iraq. Because if our "march to victory" takes about three steps more in the direction it's going, it's entirely possible that full-scale civil war will break out. And then we could be facing the 2006 equivalent of the evacuation of Saigon. The White House and most of our media are not dealing with this scenario--they like you to be the last to know. I prefer you to know the worst so you aren't paralyzed by surprise.

First, today's news. From The New York Times:

A series of brazen attacks in the heart of Baghdad's heavily fortified government zone continued today as two suicide bombers disguised as high-ranking police officers blew themselves up outside the Interior Ministry, killing at least 14 officers and wounding 25.

The attack came during a parade to mark Police Day that was attended by the Iraqi ministers of the interior and defense and by the American ambassador, an official of the Interior Ministry said.

What this means: The insurgents attack with impunity. They have no difficulty finding suicide bombers who are good enough actors to play the parts of senior government officials. Our security is inadequate--we can't even protect ourselves on territory we allegedly control.

Then this, from an American on the scene, who writes to Juan Cole:

I am an American currently working in Baghdad for a news organization. I've been here numerous times over the past 15 years.

The current security situation here has gotten much worse since the elections. We had a security briefing yesterday right after a fellow journalist was abducted. Besides the usual reminders to keep a low profile and going over our own unique security measures and procedures as to what to do in any given scenario we were told that there's a high probability of all out civil war.

Iraq has been in a low level civil war since the end of 2003 that has been increasing in intensity ever since, but now our security team is telling us that should all-out war break out most, if not all of us, may have to be evacuated to safety in a nearby country. Instead of the scores of Iraqis dying each day as do now, thousands a day could perish. Most Sunnis have given up hope of getting adequate representation in the new Iraqi government and radical elements in the Shiite parties want to exact revenge on the Sunni for supporting Saddam over the years. Shiite death squads roam the city at night (in police and army uniform no less) dragging all the male members of a Sunni family out into the street and executing them in front of their women folk. Sunni insurgents (not in uniform) do the same to Shiite families in areas claimed as theirs.

The Sunni insurgents, it seems, are now determined to bring the new government to its knees by cutting off fuel supplies to Baghdad. The city’s supply of gasoline nearly dried up last week and local authorities literally shut the city down by banning all privately owned vehicles from the streets. They claimed it was to help hunt down the kidnappers of the Interior Minister’s sister but the real reason seems to be to reduce the demand for gas until supplies could be replenished. Electricity in most Baghdad neighborhoods has now been further reduced to as low as 1 hour per day. The black market rate for fuel for generators has doubled again and in many areas even that has run out. At this rate the city will go dark by the end of the month. Iraqi troops are reluctant to escort fuel trucks into Baghdad and American troops have their hands full escorting their own convoys.

Most US casualties are a result of trying to protect US military supplies. You can forget about the US military escorting civilian fuel convoys. So it all comes down to the Iraq army’s ability to get fuel into Baghdad and I don’t have much confidence they will succeed.

What this means: Well, imagine your city with an hour of electric power a day and just enough gas at the pump to get you home. And then imagine that a foreign army is rolling through your city in convoys. Their cause: your freedom. You'd buy that, right?

And, in case you missed this on Friday afternoon (when all the bad news is released)....again, from The New York Times:

A secret Pentagon study has found that at least 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have survived if they had extra body armor. That armor has been available since 2003 but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials.

The ceramic plates in vests currently worn by the majority of military personnel in Iraq cover only some of the chest and back. In at least 74 of the 93 fatal wounds that were analyzed in the Pentagon study of marines from March 2003 through June 2005, bullets and shrapnel struck the marines' shoulders, sides or areas of the torso where the plates do not reach.

Thirty-one of the deadly wounds struck the chest or back so close to the plates that simply enlarging the existing shields "would have had the potential to alter the fatal outcome," according to the study, which was obtained by The New York Times.

What this means: At least 74 Marines died from American negligence. That is, we knew there was a problem and we knew there was a solution, and we chose to do....nothing. And indeed, we may still be doing nothing. Except, of course, making our troops feel as if no one cares about them.

The President has plenty of trouble as it is--his insistence that he can decide to ignore any law he chooses could well be grounds for impeachment. (Not that there are men and women in Congress courageous enough to launch impeachment hearings.) Now we may add criminally negligent homicide to the charges.

I still believe that sunlight is the best disinfectant, so I racked my brain to think of a way--beyond blogs, that is--to get real facts like these to the public. And came up with an open letter to George Soros: Please buy CNN. If you can think of ways to wake up our slumbering fellow citizens, feel free to share.

Or maybe there's something else. I just read Michael Daly's article about a mother who bought her son body armor for Christmas. Cost: $3.000.

She was at her job with the city controller's office when her son telephoned from their house on Staten Island to say that UPS had made the delivery. "He called me, 'Oh, I got it! It's beautiful! Oh, look at this stuff!'" she recalled. "He wanted to try it on. I said, 'This is your Christmas present.' He said, 'Okay!'"

She arrived home to see him appear in full armor. "He comes all dressed up like he's going to the prom," she said. "He's standing there all straight and proud. He said, 'It's comfortable. It fits me good.' He's spinning around, saying, 'Do you see any holes?' He said, 'Look, I can carry my hand grenades.'"

The mother felt the need of a chair. "I'm sitting in my chair thinking, 'I can't believe this is happening,'" she recalled.

Here's how crazy it is. The mother can file Form 2902, "Claim for Reimbursement and Payment Voucher for Privately Purchased Protective, Safety or Health Equipment Used in Combat." She can get back $1,100 through a program the military began after Congress insisted.

The armor comes from Diamondback Tactical. Think I'll call them this week. Maybe it's time for the readers of this column to buy some poor soldiers the protection that will--literally--save their lives.