For almost 5 years the US has been claiming it's not occupying Iraq - it's "training" Iraqis to fight guerilla war insurgents in Iraq.
Bush, Petraeus, and McCain spent this year bragging about "the success of the surge" with little opposition from the other presidential candidates. No one dares mention that it was obviously the retreat of every British troop, and popular evil Moqtada Al-Sadr's leadership thuggery in demanding a cease-fire, that stopped most of the violence in southern Iraq.
Cut to this week. It turns out the huge armored vehicles we've trained the Iraqi Army to operate don't fit on the narrow streets of Basra or Sadr City in Baghdad. If the Iraqis in them manage to escape, the abandoned vehicles are soon riddled with graffiti. So the Iraqi Army demands air support from the US - and since we'll never offer them their own airborne vehicles, this means that as in Vietnam, it's Americans bombing civilian communities with no chance of distinguishing enemy from innocent.
It should have been clear from the outset that the "training" talking points were lies...
Maybe "denial" is more apropos than "lies". I'm sure plenty of Americans sincerely believe that our smarter, better armed (not to mention white, Christian, and inherently more moral) American troops can teach relatively savage, ignorant Iraqis quite a bit about how to win guerilla wars:
- Never mind that our military hasn't won any guerilla wars despite killing two million civliians in the last one (Vietnam) and perhaps a million so far (who's counting?) in the current one.
- Never mind that those doing the training can't tell a friendly Iraqi from a terrorist (so men are sent to prison to be on the safe side), nor tell a Shia from a Sunni.
- Never mind that from their own training, those American troops speak only one word of Arabic - "hadji" (nigga)
- Never mind that the force that's training the Iraqis is internationally famous for torture, killing civilians, and disappearing billions of dollars.
- Never mind that every military expert has cited poor planning as the hallmark of this US war and occupation.
Wait - facts aside - What kind of America hater would dare say we're not competent to train the Iraqis?!
Don't worry - we just mean it's the Iraqis who are too slow, savage and corrupt to absorb the training our Marines are given in a few weeks. That must be why it's taking 5 years. Americans prefer that kind of jingoist racist patriotic rhetoric. Whichever, let's just agree it's not occupation - it's adult education.
"We're training the Iraqis" is a bipartisan talking point that everyone from McCain to Obama has eagerly signed on to. It's a key reason all the remaining candidates agree our troops may stay in Iraq into 2013. But now the lie is staring us in the face on the news. We're training Iraqis to ride in vehicles that can't possibly chase a guerilla warrior. We're training them to massacre civilians and require US air support indefinitely.
Increased violence in Iraq may hurt McCain, Petraeus, and Bush. But it won't really help the Democrats unless they start leveling with Americans.
Barack Obama may become the next president because 6 years ago he was among the first to level with us about Iraq. Is there a candidate today - a leader - who will finally challenge this "training" myth and stop the denial about today's Iraq?
Now would be a good time.