Jeannina Perez
WST 3015 Sec. 0002
4/5/10
The War on Iraq: The New Cold War?
Riverbend's blog Baghdad Burning gives readers a first-hand look into life as an Iraqi during the American attack on Iraq. Her August 7, 2004 blog entitled Clashes and Churches... focuses on how the United States' government has made the war into a paranoid attack on the Islamic people. Clashes and Churches... is also a personal entry that gives readers a view into the Iraqi culture, with regards to religion, while at the same time busting the myth that Iraqi people don't respect other religions.
According to the essay Women and the Military, War, and Peace one of the four basic requirements for for human security is "People's fundamental human dignity, agency, and cultural identities must be honored." (Kirk, Okazawa-Rey 510) The middle section of this particular blog entry Riverbend discusses the collapse of the Christian culture in her neighborhood. At the time of this entry the churches near her were recently bombed. These bombings have affected her personally because they remind her of the good times she shared with the Christian people in her neighborhood. The Christians and the Muslims in her neighborhood, and Iraq, have lived together peacefully for centuries. Many of the Christians have now left in fear for their own lives. With the destruction of the churches the Iraqi cultural identities have, in a way, not been honored.
Towards the end of the blog entry Riverbend discusses her disgust with how the war is being twisted in a means to gain support from the American people. Riverbend explains her belief that all of the bombings of the churches and other Christian establishments are an attempt to make the Islamic people look like the villains. The American people have been taught that their way of life is worth fighting and perhaps dying for (Kirk, Okazawa-Rey 493). With Christianity being the number one religion in America these bombings (according to Riverbend) have been twisted to look as a direct attack on the American people. Riverbend even goes on to describe the War on Iraq as being the "new Cold War".
Unlike the first Cold War, this war has seen it's fair share of casualties of both soldiers and civilians. Riverbend's blog Baghdad Burning clearly depicts the civilian casualties of the war. These were men and women who died not because they hated America or Americans in general, but because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The media has in turn described these men and women as being 'insurgents' (Riverbend 7 Aug 2004). In the views of Riverbend the Christians who have become her friends throughout her life have been chased from their homes out of fear in order to instill fear and support in the Americans. Whether this war is about protecting Christianity, fighting against terrorism, fighting for our national security, or fighting for oil, innocent Iraqis are being sacrificed for the pointless American cause. The American military has sacrificed Iraq's national security in an attempt to "protect" America's.
Works Cited
Riverbend. "Clashes and Churches..." Web log post. Baghdad Burning. Blogspot, 7 Aug. 2004. Web. 5 Apr. 2010.
"Women and the Military, War, and Peace." Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Ed. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. 5th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2009. 493-510. Print.
The "other" mentality that sweeps the media is one of the most convincing factors that this is indeed the next cold war. Fueled by propaganda and the belief that these people are in some way "below us". I noted in my blog that it is actually the definition of militarism to "undermine the enemy by using different language".
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to compare the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past years to the Crusades of the past. In both cases, before the wars, Christians were generally left unmolested in Muslim countries. Then, Christian nations from far away decided that the Muslim territory contained riches and told their people they had to attack the Muslim nations - either because God Wills It or For Freedom. Then, the Christian nations attack the Muslim nations, the "People of the Book" lose their previously tolerated status, and, after many long years of wars of attrition, the Christian nations retreat, leaving a morass of waring states, broken culture and sand.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why American media seems to portray the Middle East as Muslim and Jewish; they rarely recognize the Christian population. Creating these divides between people of different religious persuasions is a great strategy to create that "otherness" that is needed to keep wars like this going on and on.
ReplyDelete