Can you win over a populace with water and lentils? If the populace has no food or water, then you can at least win them over for the afternoon, as was amply demonstrated by some news footage of non-combatants. The civilians were rushing across the bridge in a town in Iraq to get at the food and water that the Brits has brought up from Kuwait.
One telling snippet was a military-age male civilian saying “US and Brits go away” as he stood in line for water and food. At more or less the same time the crowd rushed the aid trucks and a supposed Iraqi militia opened fire over their heads, scattering everyone.
I’m confused by this, as one would expect at least a modicum of thanks for the humanitarian aid, rather than some, as the Aussies call it, “stick’ about being in their country. Sort of a passive-aggressive, “Thank you, now Fuck Off” Iraqi equivalent. The gunfire from the Iraqi militia sent the punctuation to that message, of: “We said, Fuck Off…Now!”
The Brits did the right thing, escorting the aid convoy away from the civilians. If you told me that the civilians were told by the Iraqi militia to grab up as much stuff as you could and run it back here for the militia to use, I wouldn’t be surprised at all. If that strikes you as truly dishonest (Feed me, water me, let me kill you later tonight while real civilians starve to death) then you haven’t got the full grasp of the situation.
There will be much gnashing of teeth and waving of righteous indignation fists from everyone from tree huggers and stream tasters to various peace groups and political agenda pushers. These groups will read from the texts and you can essentially predict the lines.
Unfortunately, many of these groups choose to ignore, or overlook, or just can’t see the other side of the equation. It is not the US and UK forces that are starving their citizens. It is the Iraqi government, Saddam Hussein, who has systematically taken as much of the Oil for Food as he can get his mitts on to feed his guards and troops, while selling the rest on a self-perpetuating black market to raise money to build more palaces, bunkers and statues. Note that very few of the senior Iraqi military people look like they have missed a meal in the last year or two.
The truly innocent civilians have been systematically starved by their own government in the past 20 years which explains their desperation for food and water. The US and UK are trying to fix that, as best they can and there will be bumps in the road. Soldiers throughout history have always shared their bread and water with the civilians, but never at the level that would satisfy those who observe from a comfy sofa after a full meal.
Simply put, folks with nothing, will always help another with nothing, up to a point. That point is when starvation sets in, the thirst becomes unbearable, or the children start to die. Then humans give their loyalty to anyone who can end the pain in the next few minutes or hours. You can counter this at the point of a gun, for a while, but not as long as you might think.
It is a heart-wrenching tragedy that civilians are being starved because of the war. Just remember that for every bit of humanitarian aid we toss over the fence, most of it is going to the Iraqi people who do not need it, the military groups, while the really needy have to fight for the scraps.
RoadDave 