NOTES ON THE WAR ON TERROR

NOTES ON THE WAR ON TERROR

Iraq is a small, insignificant and impotent country of the Middle East. It was never much of a threat to anyone except its neighbors. Its history indicates that it was actually three countries - one controlled by Kurds in the north, Shia Muslims in the south and Sunnis in the central area. The Kurds are culturally and religiously related to its neighbor, Turkey; the Shias to its neighbor, Iran; the Sunnis to its neighbor, Syria. Until the reign of Saddam Hussein, these three areas were almost never held together as one.

Saddam was an evil tyrant who had the desire to expand his influence and wealth but could only overpower his tiny neighbor, Kuwait. He didn't carry much clout with any other country even though he was sitting on top of one of the greatest oil reserves in the world. The Iraqi people thought that they repelled the US and won the first Gulf War since we didn't march into Baghdad.

The United Nations inspectors cleared this country of 'weapons of mass destruction' many years ago. Saddam wished he had them and tried to make others believe he had them. He thought if his neighbors thought he had WMD, they would fear him. He fooled a lot of people.

We are not fighting anyone in Iraq, now. Our soldiers are just trying not to get killed. Neither is there a classic civil war going on. Insurgents are just killing people. Most of the killing is in the areas where Sunni and Shia Muslims share control. Its all about control. Most attacks are against the government or symbols of government. If this is going to be one country with one controlling government, its going to be accomplished over many dead bodies. Its our dream but not necessarily theirs. Most countries, on the road to democracy, have a civil war. We did. It shouldn't be shocking if the Iraqi people do, too.

We have about 70 thousand mercenaries in Iraq right now. These are US civilians working as private contractors in the business of protection. Mostly ex-military types, these guys work as body guards or special operations forces. They make huge amounts of money doing what we don't have soldiers enough to do. Much of the cost of carrying out this conflict goes into paying these mercenaries.