It's not like post-WWII Germany

The latest thing that Condi Rice and the gang have taken to is comparing the Iraqi occupation with post-WWII Germany, describing the 'werwolf' operations of the SS as on par with those persistent Iraqi 'Baath remnants' or 'dead-enders.' However as a report in Slate concludes, the administration is lying because in the post-war German occupation, there was virtually no violence against American forces, much like in peacekeeping operations in Haiti and the Balkans. Take a little revisionist history from Donald Rumsfeld:

Rumsfeld: One group of those dead-enders was known as "werewolves." They and other Nazi regime remnants targeted Allied soldiers, and they targeted Germans who cooperated with the Allied forces. Mayors were assassinated including the American-appointed mayor of Aachen, the first major German city to be liberated. Children as young as 10 were used as snipers, radio broadcasts, and leaflets warned Germans not to collaborate with the Allies. They plotted sabotage of factories, power plants, rail lines. They blew up police stations and government buildings, and they destroyed stocks of art and antiques that were stored by the Berlin Museum. Does this sound familiar?

Well, no, it doesn't. The Rice-Rumsfeld depiction of the Allied occupation of Germany is a farrago of fiction and a few meager facts.

The Army history records that while there were the occasional anti-occupation leaflets and graffiti, the GIs had reason to feel safe. When an officer in Hesse was asked to investigate rumors that troops were being attacked and castrated, he reported back that there had not been a single attack against an American soldier in four months of occupation. As the distinguished German historian Golo Mann summed it up in The History of Germany Since 1789, "The [Germans'] readiness to work with the victors, to carry out their orders, to accept their advice and their help was genuine; of the resistance which the Allies had expected in the way of 'werewolf' units and nocturnal guerrilla activities, there was no sign.

This gibberish comes strictly in the context of the mounting toll of injuries and death against the US forces in Iraq. The WaPost warns that injuries are mounting very rapidly, as about 10 soldiers a day are injured and about 2 killed. Impressively, the army no longer reports violent injury incidents, as these happen too frequently for the American public to deal with.

U.S. battlefield casualties in Iraq are increasing dramatically in the face of continued attacks by remnants of Saddam Hussein's military and other forces, with almost 10 American troops a day now being officially declared "wounded in action."

The number of those wounded in action, which totals 1,124 since the war began in March, has grown so large, and attacks have become so commonplace, that U.S. Central Command usually issues news releases listing injuries only when the attacks kill one or more troops. The result is that many injuries go unreported.

The rising number and quickening pace of soldiers being wounded on the battlefield have been overshadowed by the number of troops killed since President Bush declared an end to major combat operations May 1. But alongside those Americans killed in action, an even greater toll of battlefield wounded continues unabated, with an increasing number being injured through small-arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades, remote-controlled mines and what the Pentagon refers to as "improvised explosive devices."

Indeed, the number of troops wounded in action in Iraq is now more than twice that of the Persian Gulf War in 1991. The total increased more than 35 percent in August -- with an average of almost 10 troops a day injured last month.

With no fanfare and almost no public notice, giant C-17 transport jets arrive virtually every night at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, on medical evacuation missions. Since the war began, more than 6,000 service members have been flown back to the United States. The number includes the 1,124 wounded in action, 301 who received non-hostile injuries in vehicle accidents and other mishaps, and thousands who became physically or mentally ill. "Our nation doesn't know that," said Susan Brewer, president and founder of America's Heroes of Freedom, a nonprofit organization that collects clothing and other personal items for the returning troops. "Sort of out of sight and out of mind."

The bit about WWII Germany comes via Warblogging.com, which expands on the serious chasm between the peace in Germany and the chaos today:

The fact is, of course, that the "post-war" conflict in Iraq has been terrible. So terrible, in fact, that despite the more than 140,000 troops currently in Iraq American cavalry officers are being forced to dismount and engage in urban warfare ? something they were never trained to do. Cavalry soldiers, in fact, are even carrying AK-47s because they aren't issued automatic weapons ? they're not expected to need them. This after neoconservatives in the Bush Administration said that the United States would need only 40,000 soldiers to occupy Iraq. We are now at the point where we must call Iraq what it is. It is a quagmire. The status quo of occupation of Iraq is something which the United States cannot tolerate for long ? two soldiers killed and ten wounded per day add up quickly.

And then there's that other war on terror in the Afghan province. (link from The Agonist) The AP has all the bad news:

The Taliban are no longer on the run and have teamed up with al-Qaida once again, according to officials and former Taliban who say the religious militia has reorganized and strengthened since their defeat at the hands of the U.S.-led coalition nearly two years ago.

The militia, which ruled Afghanistan espousing a strict brand of Islam, are now getting help from some Pakistani authorities as well as a disgruntled Afghan population fed up with lawlessness under the U.S.-backed interim administration, according to a former Taliban corps commander.

"Now the situation is very good for us. It is improving every day. We can move everywhere," said Gul Rahman Faruqi, a corps commander of the Gardez No. 3 garrison during the Taliban's rule.

Depressing yet entertaining nonetheless... Yet again the wily Afghans stick it out.

Posted by HongPong at September 2, 2003 08:31 PM
Listed under Iraq .