Post Invasion Iraq – Deja Vu From Post War Europe
It didn’t take long after the Iraq Invasion for the media to accuse the U.S. of “losing the peace” in Iraq after winning the war.
The insurgency, bombed out market streets, and ruined buildings took media center stage. People poked fun at the idea that we could take a country like Iraq, and replicate what we did in Germany and Japan. This isn’t the first time that the U.S. had a bumpy ride after it invaded a country.
Six months after World War II, Time Magazine came up with an article that put the United States in a bad light. Their January 7, 1946, headline read; “Americans are Losing the Victory in Europe.” The subhead immediately after that read: “Destitute Nations Feel that the U.S. Has Failed Them.”
The article touched on some of the issues similar to those involved with post invasion Iraq. There was no leadership and no real plan to win the peace in post war Europe. Europeans accused the U.S. of being evasive, and apologetic, when they should’ve had a concrete reconstruction plan.
Europeans were relieved when U.S. and U.K. troops liberated them. But they ended up disappointed with allied troop post war performance. Time’s article goes on to mention that the U.S. Troops engaged in looting, were involved in the black market, and mistreated the civilians.
The allied forces had to deal with a NAZI spawned terrorist group frustrating reconstruction efforts in Germany. Their tactics included killing Germans that cooperated with the allies during reconstruction; setting decapitation wires along roads, planting bombs in the roads, and poisoning beverages destined for the Russian consumption.
Books that covered this “forgotten history,” include, “The Last Nazis: SS Werewolf Guerrilla Resistance in Europe 1944-1947,” and, “Werewolf!: The History of the National Socialist Guerrilla Movement, 1944-1946,” by Perry Biddiscombe; and “Werewolf: The Story of the Nazi Resistance Movement 1944-1945,” by Charles Whiting.
Many school history books gloss this section of history over. This leads to many people having the assumption that European reconstruction went smoothly. So far, Iraq has made tremendous progress, and is following the path we set the Germans and Japanese on.
The drastic drop in “bad news” from that country, and the rapid withdrawal of most full-time news staff from Iraq, are indirect hints that Iraq progress has gone full steam ahead.
