Why Is the American Army Still in Iraq?

An Excerpt

Paul Hopkins served locally on the Ecumenical Working Group for Middle East Peace and from 1980 to 1985 as coordinator for the Middle East for the Worldwide Ministries Division of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). This is an excerpt from an article in Peace Meal, February 06, entitled “Why Is the American Army Still in Iraq?” (Peace Meal is the Newsletter of the Peacemaking Resource Team, Presbytery of Philadelphia.)

There is no doubt of the need to get our troops out at the earliest feasible opportunity. From an Iraqi perspective, our staying in the face of our losses only gives strength to the belief that we are intent on maintaining bases in the country and dominating their oil industry. But there is a lot more for the U.S. to do. A war on terrorism, like a war on drugs, is mischaracterized as a war, and it will be as futile as the war on drugs until we learn the root cause of the hatred of the U.S. by Muslim young people. Our military efforts are bound to be counter-productive. More than two decades ago, this author, following an extensive trip to the Middle East, wrote in a report:

. . . our current folly in trying to use military power to resolve long festering disputes has probably made the path of diplomacy longer and more difficult. The military alternative, however, is too frightening to pursue.

When the Fire Below erupts we will not have any moderate friends in the Arab world. The oil, the financial resources, the religious zeal of those states will be arrayed against us. In a world already awash with weaponry, they will not need to buy our arms, or even Soviet arms, especially for their kind of fight. And when the Fire Below erupts, America and Israel will stand alone. It is not a war for which the Pentagon has developed a game plan. Our nuclear arms will be most inappropriate and useless. Our conventional forces just more targets for terrorist attacks.”

That report was written following an extended conversation with an Islamist leader who had explained to me the Islamist view of the western world. He believed deeply that the Islamist view would eventually become the accepted Muslim view throughout the Middle East, and only regretted the turn toward extremism of some of his Islamist brothers that he felt would only delay the day of their ascendancy.

I wrote the report and entitled it “the Fire Below,” explaining that “the Fire Below is the rising frustration throughout the Arab world, making more extremes within the Muslim community than Israel and the U.S. planes and armies can ever kill. They will not fight by conventional means but by what we call ‘terrorist’ attacks. They will not fear for their lives because they believe their act gains them entrance into Heaven. How does one protect a car, a plane, a building from such people?”

At that time I asked my Islamist friend what were the chief frustrations of the young Muslims? He shared with me his understanding of the movement’s frustrations.

► The Crusader mentality of the Western World, especially the U. S.

► The inability of western people to understand another culture.

► The pornography exported by the Western World to Arab people.

► The Western tendency to treat Arab people as if they were from a colonial country.

► The Western world ( and primarily the U.S.) attitude toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The issues of justice weighed heavily in the conversations with emphasis on land and its confiscation from the original inhabitants.

► U.S. vetoes of UN resolutions regarding Israel

► The materialist life style of the western world and the unjust way in which its military strength is used to gain advantages in trade and commerce.

I shall never forget the closing words of my Islamist friend “Our time together has been most interesting. It leads me to believe that we Islamists would have no quarrel with the West if only western Christians were faithful to their Lord.”

Paul Hopkins

return to 2/06 CPF Newsletter