The song title, "What a difference a day makes," might be applied to the War in Iraq now that the seven U.S. army POWs have been found alive and except for two with minor wounds, mostly well.
For about three weeks, television stations carried pictures of the seven shortly after their capture; each soldier looked shocked, frightened, bewildered, or plain stunned. What I saw on those faces was a look of bewilderment, of how could this happen to me; but happen it did.
In the end, it was not so much American brilliance that located the POWs as it was a combination of an Iraqi commander giving up the fight and running away and leaving his comanderless troops to fend for themselves. When a troop of U.S. Marines showed up, the Iraqi soldiers told the Americans where a group of American POWs were. Shortly after, the Marines 'rescued' the seven POWs and they began the long journey home to the United States.
These seven were from the same outfit that the much-publicised Jessica Lynch, PFC, U.S. Army, hailed from. For reasons yet unexplained, Private Lynch was separated from the others and spirited away to a hospital from where she was rescued by her countrymen in a daring night raid. Miss Lynch's story is the stuff a Hollywood movie might be based on: a pretty young woman who wants to serve her country; who ships overseas to a war much of the world does not want to see happen; to be ambushed after her supply unit makes a wrong turn in the dessert; who is wounded in the ambush; who then is taken prisoner of war, her whereabouts unknown. Then, to add a bit of a melodramatic flavour to the story, an Iraqi civilian informs the Americans where the female POW is housed. In a fashion not unlike the best of Hollywood, the Americans pull off a successful rescue.
For the others of PFC Lynch's unit, the ones who were not killed in the ambush, and who spent three weeks confined as POWs waiting and waiting for what they surely believed would be their rescue, or their execution, there will be no Hollywood blockbuster movie. The reality is that thanks in no small measure to the persistence of the Coalition Force, in particular the U.S. and its pinpoint bombing, the much-vaunted Iraqi army either surrendered or simply faded away. Then, in a manner befitting 'an out of nowhere' incident, the Americans stumbled upon their countrymen. The Iraqis who led the Americans to the seven POWs obviously understood what so many others around the world have yet to realise: Saddam Hussein is [or was] an evil person who led by fear and who maintained his position by waging war on his own people, at times with weapons of mass destruction.
There are two good news stories that emerge from all this: one, that the seven American prisoners of war were found safe and have been returned to their countrymen, and two, that the Iraqi soldiers who gave them up were sensible and knew that there was no future for them in fighting a juggernaut that was rolling over their country almost unimpeded.
It has been reported that approximately 1500 Iraqi civilians have died to date as the Coalition Force moves throughout Iraq. There are some who claim that the civilians' deaths must be laid at the feet of the Coalition Force when actually they should be handed to Saddam Hussein. He should be told - if he is still alive - "Here, Saddam, take these bodies; you caused their deaths. You had an opportunity to surrender well before the first shot was fired. You chose not to do so, therefore, these 1500 innocent souls' deaths are on your hands and on your hands alone."
Let us not twist ourselves into useless knots trying to find ways to blame the United States and its allies for the death and destruction in Iraq. Clearly, Hussein had it within his power to prevent it all. That he did not tells us rather firmly that he enjoys [or enjoyed] murdering his fellow countrymen; and if anyone still harbours an opinion that Hussein is [or was] a fine fellow, they should ask the Kurds or the Shia's. Ask the relatives of the more than five thousand Kurds gassed by a weapon of mass destruction by the Iraqi despot or the Shia's who had their land destroyed when the Iraqi despot drained the Marshes. Ask, then ask yourself, "Why am I defending such a tyrant? Am I nuts?"
Now that the end is in sight, perhaps it is time for France, Germany and Russia to stop playing a mug's game and accept that they were wrong in opposing the United States and United Kingdom and Australia in their decision to stop waiting for hell to freeze over as Saddam Hussein again and again bamboozled the United Nations.
Bob Orrick is a private tutor of English grammar, literature, poetry and Canadian history to off-shore youngsters. His pupils hail from such places as Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Venezuela. He was previously in international marketing, was a ministerial assistant to a provincial cabinet minister, spent a few years as a reporter then editor of a community newspaper and enjoyed a career in the Royal Canadian Navy.
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