How Many Do we Kill? That's What I Want to Know

So, there we were on Saturday night at The Hudson Hotel. The place reminds me of Los Angeles and South Beach. Which is fine, I guess, unless you don’t like the style of old Annie Lennox music videos. Poor Manhattan. What was once the leader of swank is now the follower. Paris is most likely the same.

There we are, in this Annie Lennox video comme Miami Beach comme Los Angeles comme New York hotel with the huge pots of ivy growing up the walls, oversized chandeliers and all sorts of people from in and out of town looking to be looked at. Last call was at 11PM in order to spare the ears of the people in the hotel rooms looking out over the patio. And all I could think was---wouldn't it be better to be in some skanky bar downtown where drinks are 1/4 the price and they keep pouring them until 4 AM?
And why would you make this huge outdoor patio if you can’t really use it after 11PM?

But none of this is my point. Though, this fin de l'empire style was the perfect backdrop for the conversation about a nation which seems to be heading in the wrong, stupid direction.

The deal. My husband and I were in New York for the weekend and we were having drinks with our very good friend, Chrissy, and her stand-up comedian/conservative Jewish/Marine boyfriend of six months on this overblown patio. He's a great guy. Funny. Intelligent. In fact, he works in the intelligence department of the Marines. We got on the subject of the war in Iraq, I brought it up, and he started saying things like, "It's good we're in Iraq because the terrorists are all coming to get us there instead of here." I thought—good--let those who want to kill each other kill each other. I'm busy.
Then, he said something to the effect of the Arabs being so stupid and uneducated, they didn't know how really simple things worked. I thought, cool, okay, I bet those uneducated, Allah freaks are pretty stupid. Sure. Why not? And I've always despised dogmatic morons. So, I was with this guy---stupid Arabs need changing. Sure, let's go for it. With a cudgel. Whatever it takes, right? I’m sick of this whole thing, let’s just win, make them our bitches, be done with it.

I like the Marine, I think he's onto something. So after a couple fifteen dollar drinks, I asked him, "So what do we have to do to win this war? This is ridiculous. I'm a practical guy. Let's finish this off. Do we have to kill them all, what the hell do we have to do? Fuck ‘em, right? Let’s just kill them. Take the oil or the land, whatever."

He got all excited...taking me for a sensitive liberal and then realizing I was like totally into this idea of kicking Arab butt and just being done with all this bullshit. So, he started saying things like, "First you have to hook up with Amed to find out what Hoofeed knows. You get what you need out of Hoofeed. Then, you kill Hooffeed. Then, when you're done with Amed, you kill him, too."

I thought that was pretty clever. So, you get Billy to help you wack Johnny. Then, when you're done with Billy, you wack him, too. Makes sense. It’s a bit thuggish, but then again, what war isn’t?

Then, I asked, "Okay, so you kill all these people, but then there's more and more of them. How, I mean, really, I wish Bush didn't lie about WMD and all, but really, fine, we're there, how the hell are we going to win this war?"

He answered, "We're just going to stay in there and show them that we're not leaving."

I thought that was interesting. Stay on top of them until they cry uncle. But then I thought---why would they cry uncle? So then I asked, "How many more years do you think this will take?"

He immediately and confidently answered, "Six years." Okay, his demeanor tells me there is a six year government plan for this whole thing at which point we will have taken over the country entirely. Wow, Neocons have chosen a time frame. Hmmm. I wonder if the Arabs agreed to it, or are they too proud to look at our calendars?

Then, I asked him, "Great. Six years. But what are we going to do in that six years? How are we going to change them into a free society?"

And the intelligent Marine answered, "We're going to stay the course."

And then I asked, "What course?"

And the conversation seemed to be veering naturally to other subjects since I tend to stay on subjects for too long and others want to talk about other important things...and I looked at this very bright Marine and I could tell by his expression that he believed everything he was saying. In fact, "Staying the Course," was so convincing a strategy, in his mind, that there did not seem to be any other logical solution to this problem of Iraq. And his air of confidence was actually attractive, much like a puffed up adolescent who realizes he can shoot cum three times and day.

We got off the subject, much to my disappointment, and as the bouncers herded us off the football field sized patio and into the hallway of a thousand bathrooms just off the lobby to finish our drinks (and if you dared to step into the lobby with your drink, another bouncer was there to herd you back into the hallway)--I just was so over the hotel and so over this war.

I stood there glinting at the Annie Lennox chandelier and I realized, while swilling down my last $1/sip: These fucking military guys have no idea what they're doing. Pride is their motivation. Pigheadedness is their fuel. The Method is the Meaning. Beating up Arabs is their pleasure. Staying the Course is their empty mantra. We'll never take over.

Japan laid down and became our bitch only because we obliterated her. We're never going to do that in Iraq. We can't. So this is going to go on for six more years and when it's over, do we really think the tribalism and religious fanaticism of Iraq is going to change? Or our tribalism and religious fanaticism?

Seems to me, we better get just a bit more righteous about our manifest destiny and obliterate them with blankets smeared with smallpox or just get the hell out, right now.

There's no plan for Iraq because, really, who could come up with one?

Or maybe I’m completely wrong and staying the course is a great idea. If we stay there long enough, of course they’ll see how free and happy we are and want to join us at the table of capitalistic democracy. It just makes so much natural sense.

I still really do like the Marine. I would love to believe his plan will work. But since it really isn’t a plan, how can it?

Plus Ca Change, Plus C'est la Meme Chose