Getting in the Way in Iraq

Joseph Capizzi

On November 26 four members of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), whose motto is "getting in the way," were abducted by Islamic fundamentalists who claimed the peacemakers were American operatives. The official response from CPT expresses their frustration: "We are angry because what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the US and UK governments due to the illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people." The abduction of the four men is a terrible tragedy; the response of CPT does them an enormous disservice.

If the American military presence in Iraq be an "occupation and oppression" of Iraq and its people, it must surely count among the least effective occupations and oppressions of a population in recorded history. The ongoing terrorist bombings and kidnappings of civilians, which opponents of the war often point to as evidence of American military failure, seem to diminish the potency of this so-called occupation and oppression. Additionally, that Iraq's democratically elected government requests our ongoing presence counts against this as either oppression or occupation. And if, this is an oppression and occupation, and if as well the war was about Halliburton, or "blood for oil", I'd like someone to explain to me why gas costs about $2.50 a gallon in my neighborhood.

Despite the changing and inconsistent voices of the war critics, Iraq has not been an oppression or occupation. The world surely has turned upside down when we are expected to consider oppressive the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's oppressive and fascistic-by-design regime and the subsequent facilitation of two, and soon three, national elections numbering millions of voters. Certainly the Kurdish and Shiite populations in Iraq might have a different opinion about just how oppressive coalition forces have been and how the emergence of civil society in Iraq illustrates our "occupation."

The CPT website tells us that its presence in Iraq dates only to October of 2002. Why weren't they there earlier, getting in the way of Saddam's oppression of Iraq's Shiites, Kurds, Christians, and even Sunnis? I ask this in sincerity, because I suspect their absence traces to real oppression that would not allow groups like CPT, and that entry became possible once Saddam realized the earnest intent of the coalition to end his rule. This is suggested by their own Iraq mission statement: CPT is in Iraq to "support a variety of new and old Iraqi human rights groups which suddenly found themselves with space and freedom to operate." "Suddenly" suggests no forethought, and the use of the passive suggests no agency; all of sudden increased "space and freedom" appeared in Iraq, although unlike CPT, the rest of us notice the coincidence of increased freedom with Saddam's overthrow by coalition forces.

One does not have to support the war in Iraq to recognize the failure of many critics simply to acknowledge what has changed and where real culpability for atrocity in Iraq belongs. In the West our press and organizations like CPT castigate the military for the humiliation of Abu Ghraib, yet they cannot muster the courage to thank the military for the "sudden" appearance of space and freedom in a place where suffocation and fear once prevailed. They have the gall to accuse the coalition of "oppression and occupation" while taking advantage of the "increased space and freedom" coalition sacrifice has made possible.

The tragic and terrible kidnappings of the four CPT men in Iraq are not the consequence of American and British policy. Kidnappings, beheadings, and murder abound wherever absence of resolve fails to challenge Islamic terrorism or genuinely oppressive regimes, like Baathist Iraq prior to coalition invasion. The terrorists are responsible for the kidnapping, as they themselves claim. Their ongoing violence against civilians explains why the Iraqi government continues to request and need our presence. The coalition will eventually and probably soon (in historic terms) pull out of Iraq. But they will do so only when the Iraqi government judges that the kinds of kidnappings that currently take place are unlikely to occur. Let's keep our eyes on the real culprits here: They are the ones with the masks and the guns and the blindfolded innocents on their knees at their feet.

• (This article courtesy of The Fact Is.org.)