How Americans Drive in Iraq = How Americans Make Enemies in Iraq

There's a video at liveleak:

It's taken from the viewpoint of an american soldier (probably, might be an embedded videographer/reporter) sitting inside an american military vehicle as it drives in traffic.

Some posts in the forum at that site are critical, others point out that americans need to drive that way to avoid IEDs and ambushes. Both sides are right. From a purely U.S. military view, where force protection is the primary concern (no soldier on the ground cares very much about the overall mission, particularly since no one above his level knows what that is anyway). So mission #1 becomes survival in the current tour, so that he can work on surviving his future tours.

On the other hand, this is how americans make enemies. Possibly 1 of those cars that they bumped was in that 20% minority who think the americans shouldn't leave Iraq yet. But after a bump like that, and seeing the humvee speed forward to bump someone else, who would think positively of the americans? The arrogance of the American military (justified since, in fact, they can vaporize any nation that stands in their way) will stand as a monument of what America stands for, even if some large minority of Americans deplore it.

My point, I think, is that good intentions don't matter. Acts are what matter. And America (possibly due to George W Bush and his evil sidekick Cheney, but more likely because it overreacts because of fear of the inconsequential) is acting like it wants to demonstrate to the world just how much of a bastard it can be.

It's sad that filipinos are brainwashed into thinking that America acts for the good. This is true, as far as that goes literally. But filipinos don't understand that America acts only for its own good. No one else matters. Unfortunately, it'll be perhaps half a millenium before the majority of filipinos understand that. In the meantime, the U.S. government, the U.S. military, and the citizens of that nation will continue to descend into a hell of their own making. Unfortunately, they'll bury the rest of us helpless bastards before they pull the whole thing down on themselves.