by Tom Engelhardt
"......Dancing on a Corpse
So, here’s a simple reality check: The whole discussion of, and argument about, “success” in Iraq is, in fact, obscene. Given what has already happened to that country — and will continue to happen as long as the U.S. remains an occupying power there — the very category of “success” is an obscenity. If violence actually does stay down there, that may be a modest godsend for Iraqis, but it can hardly be considered a sign of American “success.”
Every now and then, history comes in handy. In a previous moment, when the neocons and their allied pundits were feeling particularly triumphant, they began touting Bush’s America as the planet’s new Rome (only more so). That talk evaporated once Iraq went into full-scale insurgency mode (and Afghanistan followed). But perhaps Rome does remain a touchstone of a sort for administration Iraqi policies.
What comes to mind is the Roman historian Tacitus’ description of the Roman way of war. He put his version of it into the mouth of Calgacus, a British chieftain who opposed the Romans, and it went, in part, like this:
“They have plundered the world, stripping naked the land in their hunger, they loot even the ocean: they are driven by greed, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor; neither the wealth of the east nor the west can satisfy them: they are the only people who behold wealth and indigence with equal passion to dominate. They ravage, they slaughter, they seize by false pretenses, and all of this they hail as the construction of empire. And when in their wake nothing remains but a desert, they call that peace.”
Folks, it’s obscene. We’re doing victory laps around, and dancing upon, a corpse."
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