The Conservative Cat

The entire text of the article is summed up in the Edtor's Note at the beginning.

Truthdig contributor Nir Rosen, an American reporter who has lived for the last three years in Iraq and who can pass as Middle Eastern, describes what it’s like to live under the boot of a culturally callous—and sometimes criminal—occupying force in Iraq. “The occupation has been one vast extended crime against the Iraqi people, and most of it has occurred unnoticed by the American people and the media.”

The editor here is trying to fool us into accepting the argument by claiming it is a result of the author's special circumstances: we don't speak Arabic and look like Iraqis, so we are not qualified to disagree. In all fairness, the editor may think this is a legitimate form of logic, in which case he's conned himself along with the rest of us. Still, it doesn't make the attempt any less wrong-headed.

This point is reiterated in the story's first anecdote.

My skin color and language skills allowed me to relate to the American occupier in a different way, for he looked at me as if I were just another haji, the “gook” of the war in Iraq. I first realized my advantage in April 2003, when I was sitting with a group of American soldiers and another soldier walked up and wondered what this haji (me) had done to get arrested by them. Later that summer I walked in the direction of an American tank and heard one soldier say about me, “That’s the biggest f*** Iraqi (pronounced eye-raki) I ever saw.” A soldier by the gun said, “I don’t care how big he is, if he doesn’t stop movin’ I’m gonna shoot him.”

I was lucky enough to have an American passport in my pocket, which I promptly took out and waved, shouting: “Don’t shoot! I’m an American!”

Missing from this description of the encounter is the fact that if the author had stopped walking he also had an excellent chance of avoiding violence. Indeed, it's worth noting that stopping one's forward progress is the preferred method of dealing with a checkpoint

I am being generous here by assuming the story is true as reported. It's entirely possible the author is making it up, or is remembering it in a distorted way that casts the Marines in a bad light. The story does not mention a location, the names of the soldiers, or even an exact date, so we can't verify the story. Plus, if he can't remember the exact date, it would be surprising if he also remembered the exact words used. Since the soldier's words are the only evidence we have of their prevailing attitude, that's a serious hole in his logic.

That kind of sloppiness would not be allowed here at Conservative Cat.

The author then projects this single incident into wild speculation in the very next few sentences.

It was my first encounter with hostile American checkpoints but hardly my last, and I grew to fear the unpredictable American military, which could kill me for looking like an Iraqi male of fighting age. Countless Iraqis were not lucky enough to speak American English or carry a U.S. passport, and often entire families were killed in their cars when they approached American checkpoints.

There are no hard facts at all here. We are asked to believe that a single anecdote can be spun into a tragedy that occurs "often", but there are no examples, and the only statistic is an estimated death toll that even if true cannot possibly justify a conclusion as to the manner of the deaths.

The next anecdote has exactly the same plot: Marines are scared and use foul language, but the author intervenes and no one gets hurt. This is followed by a series of stories in which the soldiers arrest people whose families don't want them taken away. Many of these people claim to be innocent civilians, but the soldiers are completely insensitive to their protestations. God help the police if this Rosen guy ever watches an episode of Cops.

But of course, it's all pointless. If there is a problem with the Iraqi perception of the Marines or vice versa, the solution is to fix the perception, not try to make things worse. Honestly, I don't understand these people. Do they honestly think the sectarian violence will decrease once the Americans are no longer trying to suppress it?

So, if you have a friend who's a machine-gun commenter, tell him it's not worth while plying his trade here. Bruce may be a foggy-brained guy who gets confused by the packaging on cheese products and routinely gets outwitted by his own daughters, but when he's doing this blog he has access to a higher intelligence.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat