Stabbed in the Back

Peter Lee

June 17, 2005

The American adventure in Iraq is collapsing, militarily and politically.

In the immortal words of Middle East expert Juan Cole, sometimes you are just screwed. There is probably no magic combination of American effort, international support, and Iraqi courage that will subjugate the insurgency. Our options are limited to hunkering down as the burgeoning rebellion chews our undermanned forces and Iraqi society to pieces, or ignominious withdrawal.

For those who opposed the war from the comfort of our homes and keyboards, there is no glory in being right.

For those who supported the war out of misguided hopes that the invasion would make the world and America safer, and improve the lot of the Iraqi people, there is no shame in being wrong.

But for those who prosecuted the war using the tools of deception, slander, hypocrisy, and callous indifference to the havoc this war wreaked on our armed forces, the Iraqi people, and America’s moral and political standing in the world, there is nothing but dishonor.

That is the distinction that must be understood and advanced as the Right, its political and moral agenda in tatters, lashes out at the left and, now that the people of America are coming together in a shared understanding of the reality of Iraq, seeks to compound the damage of the war — and its crimes — by dividing us once again.

The military brass tries to shift blame from its inability to stand up to Rumsfeld and the neo-cons by evoking a historically dubious Vietnam analogy.

From the June 17 LA Times, Marine Lt. Gen. James Conway:

“…it’s extremely important for the soldier and the Marine, the airman and the sailor over there, to know that their country’s behind them.”

Conway alluded to the precedent of Vietnam, in which plummeting public support for the war was blamed for undercutting the U.S. effort.

A little down the food chain, Gary Bauer blames the drop in the recruiting numbers not on a bloody, futile, and degrading war, but on the unwillingness of the MSM to report the feel-good news coming out of Iraq.

"If you are an 18-year-old American watching the news, you seldom, if ever, hear about a heroic U.S. soldier who rescues a wounded comrade, captures a terrorist thug or saves the lives of civilians — even though those things are happening every day," Bauer observes.

"On the other hand, every young American has seen countless hours of coverage of Abu Ghraib prison guards on their way to jail, and demonstrators calling U.S. soldiers war criminals," he says.

…

"But all we see on the news are stories highlighting the inevitable mistakes, blunders and setbacks of war," he laments, adding that the liberal media views the recruitment difficulties as just "one more piece of evidence" that the war in Iraq is "illegitimate and a failure."

"The amazing thing isn't that there is a recruitment shortfall," Bauer concludes. "The amazing thing is that with such a hostile media culture and the universal disdain of our elites, the American military, as it always has, is getting the job done."

Courtesy of Digby , we get nearer the bottom of the barrel and learn it wasn’t flawed doctrine, wishful thinking, and arrogance — and a shortfall of at least 100,000 in the number of occupying forces — that marched our troops in the bloody quagmire:

Throughout American History the Democrats have always been for less and less freedom from gov't despite the hundred million or so dead bodies gov't has caused during that period. One has to consider that their philosophical illegitimacy is what makes their loyalty so questionable and their style so nasty and seemingly treasonous. They want to belong here but the facts always paint them as anti-American. In a way you have to feel sorry for the painful position in which they find themselves, but you also have to wonder why it is that they seem to have an absolute inability to learn to think?

…

Don't the liberals know that once the war is on, and there is no way out, we're all supposed to be on the same team? Are they so alienated from the soul of America that they would rather see its children die on the battlefield than prevail against evil?

Yes, it’s going to get ugly.

There is a de facto embargo on using Hitler analogies — known as Godwin’s Law — which, I’m sorry to say, I’m going to break.

Well, maybe it’s really a Weimar analogy.

I’m referring to the “stabbed in the back” meme — the manufactured Dolchstoss legend that

claimed that the German military had not been defeated in World War I, but that the Germans had been "stabbed in the back" by Jews, socialists, and liberals who forced them to surrender.

In fact, the further right you go, the more desperately necessary the analogy becomes to explain the Iraq debacle.

If the United States is the ultimate expression of democracy and freedom, with its invincible military and invisible army of ideas and ideals; if it is, in fact, the instrument of the will of the Judeo-Christian God on this earth led by profoundly virtuous and able leaders who draw their guidance from the Almighty, how can we be defeated by a tiny group of vicious, ragtag insurgents? And how can this little country of Iraq careen into a downward spiral of violence that we seem incapable of reversing?

Only if the sickness came from within. If our precious bodily fluids were contaminated. If our soldiers and leaders were stabbed in the back.

One word, Ann Coulter would — and has — and will say: Treason.

It’s necessary to fight this.

Not so we can crow about being right when they were wrong.

Or reap some political advantage from the current disarray of conservative and Republican forces.

Because the aftermath of defeat might be as dangerous to our country as the war itself.

The invaluable Wikipedia’s fascinating history of the World War I endgame and the political environment — and opportunism — that fed the Dolchstoss myth is worth reading in its entirety and includes these sobering passages:

After the last German offensive on the western front failed in 1918, the German war effort was doomed. In response, (the military high command) arranged for a rapid change to a civilian government. General Erich Ludendorff, Germany's Chief of Staff, said: "I have asked His Excellency to now bring those circles to power which we have to thank for coming so far. We will therefore now bring those gentlemen into the ministries. They can now make the peace which has to be made. They can eat the soup which they have prepared for us!"

…

As the Kaiser had been forced to abdicate and the military relinquished executive power, it was then the temporary, civilian government which "had to" sue for peace.

…

Many who believed in the utter invincibility of the army asserted that the statesmen who had signed the Treaty of Versailles were traitors, and that victory would have eventually come otherwise.

…

The well-funded Dolchstoß propaganda managed to conceal the key facts about the armistice and the Weimar Republic, so the meme of the stab in the back would prove to be highly effective in building a strong nationalist movement in Germany. Its emotional effectiveness stemmed from the manner in which it addressed the anger and confusion felt not only by the average German, but also by soldiers returning from the front.

…

As such, the Dolchstoß quickly became a central image in propaganda produced by the many right-wing and traditionally conservative political parties that sprung up in the early days of the Weimar Republic, including…

Including, well, you know who leading you know what.

We can’t let the trauma of the Iraq invasion to be compounded as a crowd of desperate hypocrites and fanatics try to evade accountability by turning the political aftermath into a misguided witchhunt for the liberals “who lost Iraq”.

The people who lost Iraq aren’t hard to find.

They’re sitting in the White House.

It’s time to call Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the neo-cons to account.

Not because they were wrong.

Because they dishonored their office — and our country — with a three year campaign of deception, intimidation, and violence that sought to cast aside the transparency and checks and balances that represent the best of our democratic society — and in the process made the Iraq disaster much worse than it should have been.

And because they would happily tear this country apart with lies and hate in order to evade responsibility for what they have done.

Don’t point the finger at the people who got it right.

Don’t point the finger at the people who got it wrong.

Point the finger at those who did — and are doing — wrong.

That shouldn’t be too hard.

Peter Lee is the creator of the anti-war satire and commentary website Halcyon Days. He can be reached at peter@halcyondays.info.

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