What Victory?

Krieger, David, International Journal of Humanities and Peace

What a difference a few months can make. At the end of April 2003, just four months ago, Donald Rumsfeld was in the Qatar headquarters of General Tommy Franks, effusively comparing the US victory in Iraq to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the liberation of Paris.

The fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the Cold War and a reuniting of East and West, and the people of Paris actually welcomed the Allied forces as liberators from the Nazis in World War II. In neither case was it necessary for American forces to remain as an occupying force; in neither case did the US government have its eyes on the oil.

As Rumsfeld savored US military dominance over the far inferior Iraqi forces, he triumphantly crowed, "Never have so many been so wrong about so much." He was presumably referring to the "many" who doubted American military tactics in the war, not those who thought the war was immoral, illegal and unnecessary.

It …

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Publication information: Article title: What Victory?. Contributors: Krieger, David - Author. Journal title: International Journal of Humanities and Peace. Volume: 19. Issue: 1 Publication date: Annual 2003. Page number: 78. © 2006 International Journal of Humanities and Peace. COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group.

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