Fallujah, Massachusetts

Times Online - World:

"Mutilated bodies dumped on Fallujah's bombed out streets today painted a harrowing picture of eight months of rebel rule..."

Astro posted a link to this article in comments here somewhere and asked me to read it. It is a decent article and it reminds us (not that we have forgotten) that the insurgents were very bad people.

They are of our own doing, however, and this is a hard fact that we must confront. By virtue of our invasion of Iraq and destablization of the country, we created this horrible problem for ourselves and the Iraqi people. Denying this is sticking your head into the sand.

We have created this problem and we can't uncreate it, so it has to be dealt with. OK.

We have also already destroyed Fallujah and cannot undestroy it, so we have to deal with that as well. OK.

Fallujah in Pictures has a statement on their site that is relevant to this discussion:

"If our cause is just then we should not fear witnessing its cost."

I would add to that that we should also not fear discussing it, and in fact, it is our duty to do so.

As far as perversions and obscenities against human nature go, the destruction of an entire city is pretty high on the list.

Our objective was to kill the insurgents in the city, an estimated 1200 of them.

The cost was the destruction of the city.

Was it worth destroying that city to accomplish our objective? That is the question.

Let's reframe the argument.

I am going to assume that most of you have been to Boston. If you haven't, substitute another small city. I have read that Fallujah had 300,000 residents. Boston proper has about 400,000, so it is a bit bigger but basically comparable.

Let us imagine that an armed gang of 1200 French-Canadian Separatists from le Parti Quebecois had moved into Boston and was doing raids on soft targets around New England to punish the United States for cooperating with Canada. The same stuff that the insurgents have been doing in Iraq against their fellow Iraqis and against our armed forces.

Clearly this has to stop. Clearly there is something we have to do about it, but what?

Now here is where real imagination comes into play.

Ponder the reality of the complete destruction of the city of Boston in order to accomplish this goal.

Think about the centuries of accomplishments that we would undo over the course of a week in destroying the city to kill the French-Canadian insurgents.

Think about the homes of friends laid waste.

I remember when one of my best friends bought a condominium on beautiful Commonwealth Avenue just a block away from Arlington Street and the Gardens. I can remember how excited he was about finding the place and how he sweated the mortgage process and how relieved he was when it finally went through. I remember helping him move in and the fun we all had at his housewarming party.

One apartment in one house on one block on one street in a small city.

Think of schools being destroyed.

I remember when my daughter first went to elementary school. There was a parent's night the week before her first day of school and two thousand of us piled into the auditorium to hear the new, young, hip principal speak about what his plans for the school were for the years ahead and I remember how proud I was that we were able to get this guy to be the principal of our school and how excited and sad at the same time all the parents were about their babies starting school. My wife braided my daughter's hair for the first day of school and my daughter wore a new dress. We took pictures of her waiting for the bus and after the bus left we cried a little. Now that she is a teen, whenever I drive by her school, a wave of emotion comes over me that is a mixture of happiness and sorrow.

One school on one street in one neighborhood in a small city.

And what of businesses?

My father had a business in Boston for 30 years and his office was his pride and joy. He focused so much of his energy on creating a workplace that was physically comfortable and visually pleasing and a great place for a group of 20 people to make their livlihood. Every friday afternoon, no matter what, they took a break around 4:00PM to sit together, listen to music, drink some wine and have some snacks. All gone - and don't forget that insurance doesn't compensate for acts of war.

One storefront on one block on one street in a small city.

A neighbor's house burned a couple of years ago and even though I didn't know him well I held him and he wept in my arms and I felt his anguish of having everything in his life undone overnight. It was the same anguish that I feel when I see people on the news crying in front of their flood or tornado destroyed homes, except it was more painful because it was right next door, very close to home.

Is or is not the elimination of the 1200 French-Canadian insurgents worth destroying my beloved Boston? Here is where we may fundamentally disagree. I cannot bring myself to believing that it is worth it.

I'm sure that a case could be made to justify the human cost of destroying a small city, but I can't make it. Certainly not under the current circumstances.

But what is done is done and we have to face it.

Feeling the cost in hindsight is the only way we will learn not to allow it to happen again.

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