Centuries ago the Emperor of China would use on occasion what is termed "Chinese Water Torture" whereby the unfortunate victim would be lashed to a table and a water would drop drip by drip hitting between the victim's eyes. Not an especially gruesome torture, as torture goes, but one by its relentless nature would break the victim mentally.
Today the United States is undergoing a somewhat simliar fate on a much grander and bloodier scale in its military occupation of Iraq.
Yesterday a marine dies in Ar-Ramadi, today three soldiers are killed in Tikrit, tomorrow two marines bite the dust in An-Anbar and a soldier has an appointment with Death in Samarra. Yesterday twelve American troopers are wounded in Haditha, today five more wounded in Baghdad, tomorrow seven in Mosul. Yesterday fortified base is mortared, today a suicide car bomb explodes, tomorrow a remote control roadside bomb detonates. Drip by drip American blood, and Iraqi blood on a hundred fold scale, water the burning sands of Iraq.
Fallujah is flattened, Al-Qaim is quashed, Al-Hit hit by missiles. Houses blasted by tanks, orchards bulldozed, innocent Iraqi citizens bound and hooded are trucked to the bowels of American torture chambers. Yet the next day Fallujah fights on, Al-Qaim battles back, and Al-Hit is not "pacified".
At the bottom the grunts openly grumble and count the days left of this futile "tour of duty", hoping only to return home in one piece. Junior Officers voice private doubts on the tactics and strategy, and just as fervently as the lower ranks hope to come home alive.
Flag rank officers, eyeing their next star, wax optimistic about the putative successes which occur under their watch. Of course no officer of flag rank (Brigadier General or Rear Admiral and above) has been killed or wounded and given their position far from danger are much more likely to be injured or killed by a drunken fall than blown to bits by a bomb or shot in a firefight.
At the very top, is the bullshit water torture; whereby the war criminals responsible for this catastrophe subject the citizens of America to an unending barrage of pathological lies, outright evasions, and pure bunkum. Perhaps in telling so many lies, so often, they have come to believe their hallucinations are reality.
The morale of the public sags, undermined by the obvious daily carnage and anarchy which is contrasted by the pollyanna pronouncements of victory in sight. Even the most rabid of warniks and armchair generals have trouble reconciling that rising casulties equal a promising future.
The appeal of a glorious martial death fades and the Armed Forces face a recruiting drought as young sensibly understand that becoming cannon-fodder is not a bright career move. Meanwhile another oil pipeline in Iraq is destroyed yet again, and Congress is told that many more billions of dollars are needed. Another day of pounding blood and treasure into a sand-hole. Drip by drip the Iraqi Water Torture grinds on.
The "Coalition of the Willing" is beset by defectors, as the publics of Spain, Netherlands, and The Phillipines, demand their governments withdraw their troops from Iraq. Drip by drip, soon the only "allies" left are either leaders that don't listen to their public like Great Britian, Australia, and Japan, or leaders who do not allow the public a voice like Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.
500 dead Americans, 1,000 dead Americans, 1,500 dead Americans, 1,700 dead Americans. 10,000 dead Iraqis, 50,000 dead Iraqis, 100,000 dead Iraqis. Drip by drip. Hour by Hour, Day by Day, Month by Month, Year after Year after Year. Drip by Drip.
Such a torture may not be as graphic as breaking bones, but in the end it breaks the sufferer far more effectively, as the mere sound of water dripping brings to mind horrific and unendurable memories. This is precisely the outcome Chinese Emperors of yore desired.
It is also precisely the outcome the American public must prevent before it erodes the very core of their national soul.
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© Copyright 2005 by Charles Walker Poff, all rights reserved.
