The Thrill of Victory and the agony of Ticrit November 13, 2008

One of my favorite lines from the movies has been 'I love the smell of napalm in the morning, it smells like victory to me" from Apocalypse Now. That and " I'm sorry I started a fight at your black panther party" from Forest Gump!" But in reality, victory smells like blood, and burned flesh, and shit. It smells of despair and hopelessness. And if I hear we have won a voctory in Iraq one more time in going to fly to NYC, go to the offending network, and go all Hunter Thompson on the idiot that says it.
Tuesday, at a veteran's day ceremony, Dick, the man who put hole in Jackson Hole, Cheney once again gave his patented spiel about our victory in Iraq, and how the battle against terrorism has not taken place on our shores. Safe since 9-11. The resounding applause made me realize once again, that a large percentage of the American public still believes this rhetoric. And why wouldn't they. On all major news outlets, victory in Iraq seems to be undisputed. The major stories are Sarah Palin, hairless non allergenic dogs, Sarah Palin, our "economic downturn", Sarah Palin, Wall street buy outs, and Sarah Palin. The polls just before election showed that only 6% of the voting public considered the war in Iraq to be the most important issue we are currently facing. SIX PERCENT!!! Ninty four percent are more concerned about the cost of a share of General Motors stock.
There have been two major compilations of the true math involved in the war in Iraq. One was done in the States and one was completed in great Britain. Both came to almost identical figures on most of the topics, so I suspect the figures that they arrived at are as close to real numbers as the situation allows. The following figures are apparently what smells like victory to the Bush administration. 4.5 million displaced Iraqis, many now living in refugee camps in Jordan and Syria. 4 million people in need of immediate emergency aid. That aid being drinking water, shelter and medical aid. 1.3 million dead. 1.3 million men, woman and children that are in large innocent civilian's. Without adding any figures for the countless permanently injured and maimed, the total is roughly a third of the entire population of the country! Or more to the point, what had been a country. A staggering sum of human tragedy that we all must count one person at a time. One mother witnessing the death of her child. One petrified little girl with no one left to care for her. A father living with the horror of not having been able to protect his family. A grandmother consumed with hunger to the point of insanity. A young taxi driver tortured to death simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. For what, in gods name. For victory? What makes it possible for a human being to except this? What have we allowed ourselves to become? This has nothing to do with victory in any sense of the word. This is about unbearable sadness and loss.