It is typically a difficult proposition to see what lies ahead in the best of times – all the more so when we watch the explosives showering our military with debris and hear the bullets cracking by their ears. But these are the trying periods when it is even more necessary to peer at what lies ahead and think deeply on how we should deal with it.
Some say you can never tell what will happen in war and that axiom holds more than a bit of truth, but the automatic assumption that it is just as true for the aftermath, is not. If one cares to look at the information readily available of the knowledge of regional events, there is enough visible to make a few educated guesses, as no military or political outcome arrives from a vacuum.
For the sake of argument, we will consider that Saddam is history – one way or another – the cannon barrels not yet cooled.
The media is reporting frequent attacks by Fedayeen holdouts, with sniping and increasing suicide-bombing attacks – attributed to the usual suspects – while some of the Iraqi civil populace is taking the opportunity to feed as many of their former tormenters, as they can quietly catch, to their knives. In the cities, there is much suffering and sickness – induced as much by dehydration and starvation as the rampant waterborne diseases – and, as yet, uncollected dead. All the while, the cameras prod and point and as usual, offer no solace.
With civil communications still a casualty, it is at times difficult to find out what is happening, and relief attempts by coalition medics – and Westerners, in general – are regular targets of the Islamist militants that are infiltrating in ever-greater numbers along every border. For along with the Western-backed, exiled political groups streaming back into the country, there are others coming in as well.
In the Shiite-dominated south, the Iranian-backed ayatollah is preaching his gospel of hate for all things from the West. His increasing band of fanatical, armed supporters go about the task of identifying and eliminating enemies from the collapsed regime – as well as potential political rivals – and all these fellow travelers are generally attempting to build upon the decades of anti-Western propaganda that passes for news here.
The United Nations has not yet decided if hostilities have officially concluded in their eyes and the secretary general has informed the media that relief will begin to arrive within a week (or more likely three, before it reaches Iraq in sufficient quantities) after a favorable decision can be reached.
France, with the support of some other nations, is attempting to get a Security Council resolution passed to mandate that a European Union-led commission be created to oversee the economic and governmental transition of Iraq. Both the United States and Britain are expected to veto the proposal. In America, the liberal press issues editorials and commentary supporting the proposal, sometimes using the disingenuous argument that the United States "has borne enough of this burden."
Money is being skillfully shifted from account to account under orders of the Middle Eastern owners to pay for goods and services needed for the Islamist cause – all the better to muddy the audit trail. Young men blazing with carefully cultivated zeal are being shuttled to embarkation points by those who care little for young lives, and whose eyes are only for their prize.
Around the United States and Britain, the families of those service personnel still listed as "missing in action" are the targets of a relentless media who seek to record "how they feel." Military families begin to think of a time when their loved ones will return, but know that it is too early to hope for that.
Using grisly images and graphic news reports from Al-Jazeera and the Arab media, "peace" demonstrators across the world accuse the Americans and British of "war-crimes." No mention is made of the swollen, fly-blown, shot-through-the-back, decapitated and mutilated "examples" always being found by coalition forces in newly occupied areas of Baghdad and scattered towns throughout Iraq – and everywhere, one cannot help but hear the high-pitched keening of dread discoveries.
Again, the usual suspects' commentary strongly condemns the treatment of suspected al-Qaida terrorists being held in Guantanamo – while in the facility in Cuba, three wholesome meals are served, without fail, every day.
Bone tired, but still alert, the now hardened soldiers and Marines go about the unforgettable business of cleaning up after this last battle, even though the iron-clad order to treat the captured Fedayeen properly grates upon their very souls, as they remember ... and remember.
Flooded with a rising tide of human misery, the medics, corpsman, doctors and nurses sort the injured and dying as they were taught and practiced. All are starting to learn more words with which to comfort those who come to them and the universal face of suffering that they will sometimes see again in introspective moments alone. Fitful snatches of exhausted sleep will be their lot for seemingly unending days until tardy help arrives, while a newborn reaches into their hearts ... until the next stretcher comes.
All the while, the cameras prod and point and, as usual, offer no solace.
What shall we do, now that we have the chance to make a lasting difference?
Tom Marzullo is a former Special Forces soldier and a veteran of submarine special operations. He resides in Colorado.