"We Have Met the Enemy"

On Earth Day 17 years ago, Walt Kelly published the line in his comic POGO (click),

"We have met the enemy, and he is us."

(click for ref.)


We have come full circle:

The Huffington Post said as much 2 years ago

in recounting the horrors of the torture American troops inflicted on Iraqis.

Now we find that an American Colonel (click for story) may have aided prisoner insurgents and apparently engaged in sex with the daughter of a prisoner.

Meanwhile, our soldiers have spent weeks building walls between Iraqis which they now will have to spend weeks tearing down since protests and the Iraqi PM oppose them.

The Okefenokee Swamp, home of Pogo, has nothing on the quagmire in Iraq.


W. Bush claims that if we set a timetable for withdrawing the troops from Iraq, it will give victory to our enemy. But just who is this enemy? Iraq is an artificial confederation of three very different people and areas: Shia, Sunni, and Kurds. All are now engaged in a civil war. Our enemy from 911, Al-Qaida, has infiltrated the country and added to the chaos.
So who is the "enemy" that will win if we leave Iraq?

There is no way to predict who will emerge victorious from this civil war. The only thing certain is that it would not be our enemy per se. All three of the dominant groups could befriend the U.S. What is creating hatred and resentment of the U. S. in Iraq is our continued occupation, our support of ongoing corruption, our greed for Iraqi oil, and our arrogance, our insistence that we know best what is good for Iraq.

Our action and our arrogance are what make Pogo's line as true today as when we tried to bend Viet Nam to our will. We are our own worst enemy, and Bush is enemy commander-in-chief.

Let us hope Congress finds and enforces a new way...



Jameson