If America were Iraq, What would it be Like?

If America were Iraq, What would it be Like?

Juan Cole

09/2/04 "ICH" -- President Bush said Tuesday that the Iraqis are refuting
the
pessimists and implied that things are improving in that country.

What would America look like if it were in Iraq's current situation? The
population of the US is over 11 times that of Iraq, so a lot of statistics
would
have to be multiplied by that number.

Thus, violence killed 300 Iraqis last week, the equivalent proportionately
of
3,300 Americans. What if 3,300 Americans had died in car bombings, grenade
and rocket attacks, machine gun spray, and aerial bombardment in the last
week?
That is a number greater than the deaths on September 11, and if America
were
Iraq, it would be an ongoing, weekly or monthly toll.

And what if those deaths occurred all over the country, including in the
capital of Washington, DC, but mainly above the Mason Dixon line, in Boston,
Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco?

What if the grounds of the White House and the government buildings near the
Mall were constantly taking mortar fire? What if almost nobody in the State
Department at Foggy Bottom, the White House, or the Pentagon dared venture
out
of their buildings, and considered it dangerous to go over to Crystal City
or
Alexandria?

What if all the reporters for all the major television and print media were
trapped in five-star hotels in Washington, DC and New York, unable to move
more
than a few blocks safely, and dependent on stringers to know what was
happening in Oklahoma City and St. Louis? What if the only time they
ventured into
the Midwest was if they could be embedded in Army or National Guard units?

There are estimated to be some 25,000 guerrillas in Iraq engaged in
concerted
acts of violence. What if there were private armies totalling 275,000 men,
armed with machine guns, assault rifles (legal again!), rocket-propelled
grenades, and mortar launchers, hiding out in dangerous urban areas of
cities all
over the country? What if they completely controlled Seattle, Portland, San
Francisco, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Denver and Omaha, such that local
police and
Federal troops could not go into those cities?

What if, during the past year, the Secretary of State (Aqilah Hashemi), the
President (Izzedine Salim), and the Attorney General (Muhammad Baqir
al-Hakim)
had all been assassinated?

What if all the cities in the US were wracked by a crime wave, with
thousands
of murders, kidnappings, burglaries, and carjackings in every major city
every year?

What if the Air Force routinely (I mean daily or weekly) bombed Billings,
Montana, Flint, Michigan, Watts in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Anacostia in
Washington, DC, and other urban areas, attempting to target "safe houses" of
"criminal gangs", but inevitably killing a lot of children and little old
ladies?

What if, from time to time, the US Army besieged Virginia Beach, killing
hundreds of armed members of the Christian Soldiers? What if entire platoons
of
the Christian Soldiers militia holed up in Arlington National Cemetery, and
were
bombarded by US Air Force warplanes daily, destroying thousands of graves
and
pulverizing the Vietnam Memorial? What if the National Council of Churches
had to call for a popular march of thousands of believers to converge on the
National Cathedral to stop the US Army from demolishing it to get at a rogue
band
of the Timothy McVeigh Memorial Brigades?

What if there were virtually no commercial air traffic in the country? What
if many roads were highly dangerous, especially Interstate 95 from Richmond
to
Washington, DC, and I-95 and I-91 up to Boston? If you got on I-95 anywhere
along that over 500-mile stretch, you would risk being carjacked, kidnapped,
or
having your car sprayed with machine gun fire.

What if no one had electricity for much more than 10 hours a day, and often
less? What if it went off at unpredictable times, causing factories to grind
to
a halt and air conditioning to fail in the middle of the summer in Houston
and Miami? What if the Alaska pipeline were bombed and disabled at least
monthly? What if unemployment hovered around 40%?

What if veterans of militia actions at Ruby Ridge and the Oklahoma City
bombing were brought in to run the government on the theory that you need a
tough
guy in these times of crisis?

What if municipal elections were cancelled and cliques close to the new
"president" quietly installed in the statehouses as "governors?" What if
several of
these governors (especially of Montana and Wyoming) were assassinated soon
after taking office or resigned when their children were taken hostage by
guerrillas?

What if the leader of the European Union maintained that the citizens of the
United States are, under these conditions, refuting pessimism and that
freedom
and democracy are just around the corner?

Juan Cole is Professor of History at the University of Michigan

Copyright: Juan Cole. http://www.juancole.com