by James Buchanan

Almost every Allied propaganda movie out of World War Two portrayed the Germans as evil, sadistic monsters eager to torture prisoners. Six decades after World War Two, we are allied to the nation of Israel which has openly supported using torture. Not only did we turn a blind eye to Israeli torture, our government has adopted the same atrocious policy.

Every occupation of a foreign land requires that we win the hearts and minds of the natives if we wish to be successful. A few nations are almost impossible to occupy. The Iraqis drove out a British occupation in the 1920s. The British had 90,000 soldiers occupying Iraq back then (with only a fraction of its current population). The natives of Afghanistan defeated a British occupation about a hundred years ago and a Soviet occupation in the 1980s.

Given the hostile nature of Iraq and Afghanistan, our military should be doing everything it can to avoid antagonizing the natives or disrespecting their culture. The Abu Ghraib scandal involving the abuse of Iraqi men and women prisoners has helped swell the ranks of the rebel movement. Over two years into the occupation, the rebels are stronger than ever killing dozens of collaborators every day. Our military just recently had to launch another major offensive in Iraq. Reports from Iraq suggest that the rebels were waiting for the assault and prepared for it. At least four US soldiers were killed on the first day of the operation.

The prisoners from the Afghan War are being held in Guantanamo Bay. Reports of abuse and humiliation of Afghan prisoners have recently been revealed and the result has been disastrous. An Associated Press article reports “Shouting ‘Death to America!’ more than 1,000 demonstrators rioted and threw stones at a U.S. military convoy Wednesday, as protests spread to four Afghan provinces over a report that interrogators desecrated Islam’s holy book at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay. Police fired on the protesters, many of them students, trying to stifle the biggest display of anti-American anger since the ouster of the ruling Taliban militia 3 1/2 years ago. There were no reports of American casualties, but the violence left four dead and 71 injured in Jalalabad, a city 80 miles east of the capital, Kabul. Mobs smashed car and shop windows and attacked government offices, the Pakistani consulate and the offices of two U.N. agencies in Jalalabad.”

The invasion of Afghanistan failed to capture Osama bin Laden as Bush implied it would. Meanwhile, a multi-billion dollar gas pipeline contract was given to an American oil company Unocal (and taken away from the Argentine oil company Bridas). The invasion of Iraq failed to turn up any weapons of mass destruction as promised by Bush. The natives of Iraq and Afghanistan know that the reason for the American occupation is flimsy at best. The torture scandals and the desecration of the Quran are unbelievable mistakes (and failings in morality) attributable to Bush, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz that can only outrage the natives and greatly increase the violent rebel opposition.