Trinicenter.com - Operation 'Shock And Awe': A Case of Shocking Barbarism

by Ben Roberts

Get used to it America. Your government is proposing an ambitious plan of attack on Iraq, dubbed 'Shock and Awe.' It calls for the US military to drop 3,000 bombs on Iraq in a forty-eight hour time frame. This is absolutely shocking, and the only thing awesome about this is that it is awesomely barbaric and wildly insane. Whoever hatched this plan should be locked away, because they are a danger to humanity. What is this a video game or something? Those numerous bombs will be raining down on humans below. Mostly children, who make up over fifty percent of the Iraqi population. Unlike the first Gulf War, this one will be urban warfare fought in cities and communities as the Iraqi army fights door to door, among the general populace in an attempt to repel a US invasion. And in this scenario America is prepared to unleash 3,000 bombs on these Iraqi people in two days. We definitely need Nuremberg trials for this one. Unless of course Americans are in some special category, making them immune from justice.

America never seems to learn. They are pleased as punch about their potent and sophisticated military machine, that is overwhelming and at the same time infallible. Or so they think. This overwhelming infallibility caused a naval female seaman on a cruiser in the Aegean Sea to observe an officer in the Control Room send cruise missile hurtling towards Yugoslavia with a single mouse click, at which point she remarked, 'Awesome!' It turned out not to be so awesome when this infallible hardware slammed into the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, taking lives in the process. It was not so awesome when this infallible hardware slammed into military trains that Yugoslav President Milosevic allegedly had crammed with civilians. This awesome and infallible technology was easily short-circuited and beaten in Vietnam. Here General Giap, Commander of North Vietnamese forces, was initially pummeled by B-52 bombers zeroing in on infrared heat signals from his soldiers camp fires. His solution was to send a single soldier on a journey some miles into the jungle, away from the camp with a pint of kerosene and match where he set a jungle blaze. B-52's saw this, came over, and expended their bomb load on an isolated fire. In this scenario all the NV spent was a can of oil and a match, and their troops were safe. The US was out millions of dollars in military materiel. The result was an inglorious Saigon exit with people scrambling aboard helicopters on the roof of the Saigon Hotel. From this, America should realize that awesome often falls far short of its billing.

Is this some sick ghoulish joke that the number of bombs in this operation, according to an article carried in this week's Associated Press, is set at 3,000? This is the number who died in the September 11 attack. Are our leaders and military planners implying somehow that they will unleash a lethal bomb on the citizens of Iraq for every American life lost in that attack? If these departed souls of our citizens could speak, what would they say about this? John Le Carre, the British world famous espionage novelist, wrote not long ago in an article that America and its leaders have gone mad in their war on terrorism. This latest shocking war plan against Iraqi citizens proves his assessment to be quite right.

In recent demonstrations over a million people poured into the streets in London opposing war in Iraq. In New York about half a million marched in opposition, braving the worst winter storm the East coast has endured in decades. In an interview a young lady from all the way in Bowling Green, Ohio described being stranded in New York after taking part in the rally. Demonstrations took place all over the world. George Bush response was to disparage this as 'focus groups.' What? America, and the world population is a 'focus group?' God help us all. But there is hope. George Bush greatest vice is being in power. Remember Florida elections and pregnant chads? Alternatively, his big fear is not being re-elected. And John Q Public American citizens hold the cards as to whether or not this happens, provided they are vigilant this time. Bush knows this, and that is why he and his team comes out with phrases like 'the game is over,' and 'it could be any day now.' They are gauging American opposition or resignation in deciding how to proceed. So Americans should stand firm, because what they say and do definitely counts. If it didn't Bush would have attacked Iraq a long time ago.

The previous Persian Gulf War was nothing short of a video display where the US deliberately showed off its military hardware, and what it was capable of. We were treated to bombs going down chimneys, and cruise missiles obliterating fighter planes at airbases. There was a reason for this display. It was a huge military advertisement. This was borne out by the fact that, before the smoke had cleared from the gun turrets in that war, there was along line of nations extending around the block waiting to purchase US military hardware. So called 'experts' often claim that America walked away from that war without much benefit. Totally untrue. The coalition forces, most especially the wealthy Arab nations, footed the bill for the war, and simultaneously procured millions of dollars of American military hardware. So it seems this Operation 'Shock And Awe' is calculated to be a military sales pitch geared to impress and send American arms sales through the roof. How is that for making the world a more peaceful place?

Operation 'Shock And Awe' should be renamed. It should be dubbed Operation 'Shocking And Awful,' because that will be the outcome of this obscene military display. Shocking and awful first for the innocent Iraqi victims, then secondly for the innocent American citizens who will no doubt pay the price for this atrocity in their towns and cities, as they did on that painful day we know as September 11.

Ben Roberts is a newsletter editor, freelance writer and published author. His book, Jackals of Samarra, was published in January 2001. Ben can be contacted by email at: grandt730@aol.com