"WE'LL EITHER colonize Iraq for thirty years and commit even more sins or leave now," Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski told me in a phone interview following her visit to the University. After serving in the military since 1978, Kwiatkowski feels betrayed by an administration that prioritizes neoconservative objectives over the informed advice of military personnel. She should: The war in Iraq is a gruesome reminder of the idiocy of subordinating military expertise to messianic ideology. As veterans from Remarque to Vonnegut have reminded us, that military expertise most frequently comes in the form of reluctance to create wars.
Kwiatkowski worked with neoconservatives in the Office of Special Plans, which helped craft plans for the American empire in the Middle East. She told me that the central objective of the neoconservatives was to decimate Iraq.The destruction of Iraq is necessary, according to Kwiatkowski, because it facilitates the encirclement of Iran. With Iran in a box, American hegemony in the Middle East would be unchallenged, except for the resistance from Iraqis and others who don't appreciate American colonization. Additionally, Bush would be in a convenient place to invade Iran. All he would have to do, according to Kwiatkowski, is fabricate a border incident, a "Remember the Maine" for Iran.
The administration does not claim colonization as an objective. Kwiatkowski pointed out that if Bush was planning a quick transition to a democratic state, then he would not be constructing "mega-bases" in Iraq. These large bases are designed to be permanent and imply plans for a permanent occupation. Kwiatkowski is angry because the administration continues to lie systematically, covering up its intentions in Iraq, just as it lied about reasons for the invasion. She thinks the military, Congress and the public at large deserve an administration that does not engage in "suppression and distortion of intelligence analysis."
For Kwiatkowski, honesty does not matter solely in principle. The administration lies have produced daily moral abominations that continue in occupied Iraq. "Everyone who acquiesced with this [invasion] will carry it with them to their death," she told me. The crimes we carry with us include the mass murder of Iraqis during bombings, the murders our soldiers commit in house-to-house raids and the continuing torture of detainees. Because of the conscious and systematic murder and torture of Iraqi citizens, Kwiatkowski said, "we have lost all credibility in that country." Not only is benevolent reconstruction a logical impossibility inconsistent with the history of American war crimes, but the Iraqis do not trust the occupying army. Thus, the reconstruction attempts of Americans are doomed to failure.
Immediate withdrawal is not necessary only for Iraqis, said Kwiatkowski. She has considerable first-hand experience with soldiers returning from the war. Every additional day American soldiers stay in Iraq hurts the soldiers themselves and the families of soldiers, Kwiatkowski said, citing psychological trauma. "When the soldiers are beating their wives and killing their kids and selling their stories for money, we'll discover the depth of the evil we've done," Kwiatkowski said. It is convenient for Bush to ignore the impact of war on surviving American soldiers, even those without missing limbs or permanent disabilities. Having witnessed families being torn apart by war, Kwiatkowski cannot ignore war's consequences.
Kwiatkowski told me a story about a recent American massacre in Iraq. U.S. soldiers lined children and women in houses and shot them. Iraqi police, trained by U.S. soldiers, witnessed the murders and reported the events. The military claimed that the women and children were collateral damage of a firefight that occurred outside the houses. Kwiatkowski told me that the only bullet holes present were on the inside of the buildings.
Lt. Col. Kwiatkowski speaks out in favor of immediate withdrawal from Iraq because she cannot remain silent about ongoing torture, ongoing murder. She is standing up for her country, a country that should belong to its citizens rather than a junta of fanatics in the Pentagon. Kwiatkowski feels betrayed, as a soldier and as a citizen. Our army is committing unforgivable sins, despite opposition to the occupation from within the military and the American public. Although successive generations of elite ideologues have condemned America to one war after another, Kwiatowski's incisive critique could fortify the nation against future wars of American aggression.
Zack Fields thanks Herbert "Tico" Braun for assistance in this column. Zack Fields' column normally appears on Mondays in the Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at zfields@cavalierdaily.com.
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