I read that half the Iraqis marry their cousins. Loyalty to family and to clan is at a level we can't understand here in America, and when I say "we" I mean George Bush. Being from Texas is great for getting elected, but for understanding furraners, I don't know. Whenever Bush says "they hate us for our freedom," I wince, because, although like most things he says, it contains a kernel of truth, it is dangerously shallow and naive. If he had gone to Viet Nam instead of getting out of doing so, he might have learned what young men do learn about people who aren't like us when they're 'in country,' which is that they're REALLY NOT LIKE US! That as crazy as it is - and I agree, it is pretty crazy - lots of Muslims care more about not doing anything that may offend Allah (and Allah, like our Biblical God, is a jealous one, and does seem touchy about freedom in many of its forms) and keeping their sister in a beekeeper suit than they do about elections and flagburning and performance art. He just doesn't get that what he loves about America - what we all do who are lucky enough to be here - is just not as important to other people in the world. Yes, they hated Saddam and tyranny, but I'm not sure they're clear on how important it is to have real democracy to ensure another Sadaam does not return. Fatalism seems real, real big over there, and the view of "If Allah wills a good ruler, or a bad one, that is what we will have, and no one can change God's will" may be deeply embedded. Condi needs to school the president a little bit on this, or else he's going to be constantly disappointed by the Iraqis and other Muslim nations. Or does Condi herself need a little schooling here?

According to the Independent, American soldiers this weekend arrived at farms in Dhuluaya, Iraq with bulldozers. With jazz music blaring from speakers the bulldozers descended on fruit groves. As jazz blared the bulldozers advanced, bulldozing "ancient" date palm groves, orange groves and lemon groves. Iraqis who witnessed the bulldozing said that at one point the American troops announced through loudspeakers that "the fruit groves were being bulldozed to punish the farmers for not informing on the resistance."

 

So American soldiers are now destroying property in order to punish villages for not informing on guerillas. Never mind the fact that collective punishment such as this is counter-productive and does nothing but lose hearts and minds. Never mind that. Collective punishment is illegal. It is very, very illegal.

 

The right for a civilian population to be free from collective punishment is a "fundamental guarantee" according to Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of August 1949. Article 75 of Protocol I says "The following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever, whether committed by civilian or by military agents." "Collective punishments" is letter "d" under that item.

 

This means that collective punishments are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever.

 

These fruit groves are these Iraqi farmer's means of survival. According to the farmers who lost their fields, "fifty families lost their livelihoods," although a petition to the Occupying Authority lists only thirty-two families who wish compensation for their fields. The petition says "Tens of poor families depend completely on earning their life on these orchards and now they became very poor and have nothing and waiting for hunger and death."

 

For every fruit grove we destroy, we invite another guerilla attack. For every village we may one day burn, we invite tenfold that number in guerilla attacks. For every Iraqi we give medical care and every school we open, we prevent that many guerilla attacks.

 

We must win hearts and minds in Iraq, and we cannot do so through collective punishment. Perhaps even more importantly, we must not become monsters in the course of attempting to defeat monsters.