Friday, April 04, 2003

Last Column: Across the Euphrates Michael Kelly (killed in Iraq yesterday) writes: Near the crest of the bridge across the Euphrates that Task Force 3-69 Armor of the 1st Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division seized yesterday afternoon was a body that lay twisted from its fall. He had been an old man -- poor, not a regular soldier -- judging from his clothes. He was lying on his back, not far from one of several burning skeletons of the small trucks that Saddam Hussein's willing and unwilling irregulars employed. The tanks and Bradleys and Humvees and bulldozers and rocket launchers, and all the rest of the massive stuff that makes up the U.S. Army on the march, rumbled past him, pushing on. On the western side of the bridge, Lt. Col. Ernest "Rock" Marcone, commander of Task Force 3-69, stood in the sand by the side of the road, smoking a cigar and drinking a cup of coffee. Marcone's soldiers say he deeply likes to win, and he seemed quietly happy. At 2 a.m. yesterday, Marcone had led his battalion into the assault with two objectives, both critical to the 3rd Infantry's drive to Baghdad. The first was to seize the Karbala Gap, a narrow piece of flat land between a lake and a river that offers a direct and unpopulated passageway to this bridge. The second was the bridge itself, the foothold across the Euphrates, last natural obstacle between the division and Baghdad. Marcone's tanks, infantry and artillery, supported by Air Force bombers and the division's Apache and Blackhawk helicopters, had taken the Karbala Gap by 7 a.m. and the bridge by 4:20 p.m. "We now hold the critical ground through which the rest of the division can pass to engage and destroy the Republican Guard," Marcone said. (04/04/04) History: Life During Wartime This war is an abject and utter failure. What everyone thought would be a quick, decisive victory has turned into an embarrassing series of reversals. The enemy, -- a ragtag, badly-fed collection of hotheads and fanatics – has failed to be shocked and awed by the most magnificent military machine ever fielded. Their dogged resistance has shown us the futility of the idea that a nation of millions could ever be subjugated and administered, no matter what obscene price we are willing to pay in blood and money. The President of the United States is a buffoon, an idiot, a man barely able to speak the English language. His vice president is a little-seen, widely despised enigma and his chief military advisor a wild-eyed warmonger. Only his Secretary of State offers any hope of redemption, for he at least is a reasonable, well-educated man, a man most thought would have made a far, far better choice for Chief Executive. We must face the fact that we had no business forcing this unjust war on a people who simply want to be left alone. It has damaged our international relationships beyond any measure, and has proven to be illegal, immoral and nothing less than a monumental mistake that will take generations to rectify. We can never hope to subdue and remake an entire nation of millions. All we will do is alienate them further. So we must bring this war to an immediate end, and make a solemn promise to history that we will never launch another war of aggression and preemption again, so help us God.   . . . So spoke the American press. The time was the summer of 1864.  (04/04/03) 9:15:18 AM

© TrustMark 2003 Timothy Wilken. Last update: 5/1/2003; 8:14:11 AM. This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.