War and Word Games
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
"The generals discuss how to circumvent the agreement
while the whole world is listening."
The brazen arrogance of imperialists never ceases to amaze.
The Americans behave on the world stage very much like Old Massah and his
friends misbehaved at the dinner table, back in slavery time. Old Massah would
talk his fool head off about "the Nigras" as if his Black servants couldn't
hear him or weren't even there. In much the same way, Barack Obama's military
men hold public discussions about when it would please them to leave Iraq - as
if the Iraqis aren't listening or don't have anything to say about the matter.
To hear the American generals talk, you'd think there was no
such thing as the recently concluded Status
of Forces Agreement, spelling out precisely how and for how long American
troops can be deployed in Iraq. The agreement has the force of law. Without it,
the Americans would be legally bound to leave Iraq immediately, with their
United Nations mandate expiring on January 1. But the Americans are acting as
if the agreement is merely a suggestion, that is subject to interpretation or
semantic subversion.
Nothing could have been clearer than the Iraqi regime's
insistence that U.S. troops leave Iraq's cities by June 30, and vacate the
country altogether by December 2011. The terms of the agreement were heatedly
debated in all forums of Iraqi society, and approved in a televised session of
Parliament. Certainly, the Iraqis are not confused about the letter and spirit
of the agreement. But the Americans are playing word games.
"Obama has been working
his own game of Iraq war semantics for two years."
Generals David Petraeus and Ray Odierno seem to believe they
can get around the agreement simply by renaming combat troops as "trainers" or
"advisors," and then marching them around Baghdad past the deadline, this
summer. More astoundingly, the generals discuss how to cir5cumvent the
agreement while the whole world is listening, making it impossible for an Iraqi
government to collaborate with the ruse, even if it wanted to.
You'd think this lack of verbal discipline on the part of his
generals would embarrass President-Elect Obama. But apparently not. Obama has
been working his own game of Iraq war semantics for two years, now, pretending
that he will withdraw all U.S. "combat troops" 16 months after assuming office.
Of course, the U.S. would never leave support troops unprotected by combat
units - that would violate the U.S. military doctrine of "force protection."
Obama is playing the same word games as his top soldiers, only the object of
his deception is the American public.
In the end, Obama and his generals are fooling no one but
themselves. The United States has not been in control of events in Iraq since
Baghdad was captured, nearly six years ago. But imperial arrogance remains even
after imperial power has faded. With no thought to how ridiculous they appear,
the Americans woof and bluster about taking their own sweet time getting out of
Iraq, when the fact is the U.S. can only stay as long as the Iraqis tolerate
them. For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted
at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
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Dr. Gerald Horne is an author and historian who currently holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston.
