You know things are going bad when elite special forces members resign in disgust. After all, aren't these the guys who are trained to do whatever it takes regardless of the tactics they have to use? True, it's important to have soldiers who can do the dirty work that is often required of them during war, but it's also important to have soldiers who can recognize when their tactics are defeating their own purpose. One wishes that such wisdom would work its way up the chain of command to where it could inspire a coherent postwar plan.

A phrase that gets tossed about quite a lot these days is "winning the hearts and minds", which is also known by the name "indoctrination". If the more accurate term was used to describe the current efforts to foist a regime change on a given country then it would be more obvious why there is resistance and insurgency. But many people would rather cling to a fairy tale image of the mighty white knight (Bush) charging in to slay the fire breathing dragon (Hussein) and everyone lives happily ever after. The reality is far different.

If we assume that systems of government lie along a continuum which follows the course of history, and that is a generous assumption, what the U.S. is trying to do in Iraq is rush the Iraqi people through over three hundred years of political and social advancement, in essence going from feudalism to modern democracy while skipping every stage in between. That in itself is a tall order, but the U.S. made it even more difficult by banning the former ruling party, removing its leadership, and firing all the Iraqi soldiers, in essence setting them back even farther before trying to move them forward. Thus, the U.S. message to Iraq is that they should forget everything that they know about government and embrace an almost completely foreign way of doing things, which is pretty much the definition of brainwashing, but since we lack the manpower to properly control the country and since our motives are made suspect by the theft of billions of Iraq's dollars it's no surprise that we are failing in our efforts. To make matters worse we're sending the Iraqis conflicting signals. We tell them that they are to govern themselves, but we insist on controlling the most important facets of their country, and when they do things that we don't like, we step in and put a stop to it fast. And if that wasn't enough, now we're publicly humiliating the Iraqis by blaming them for a lot of the problems in their country.

It's painful to watch, and it reminds me of how domineering parents treat their children. The parents are well meaning of course, but they are determined to have their reluctant children learn some very important lesson regardless of their children's desires. Perhaps you've seen something like this, where the parent is desperately trying to focus the child's attention on something, explaining over and over what the child needs to do, and either doing it for them or actually grabbing the child's hand and forcing it through the motions while the child goes limp and gets dragged along. It's easy for me to visualize the U.S. doing the same thing: grabbing Iraq by the hand and saying, "Come along, we're going to Baghdad to overthrow your leader now. Why? Because he's a bad man. What? Yes, I know I used to support him, just…Why? Because I said so, that's why. So come along, now. Oh, you're not going to come along, well then we'll just do it for you Bang. See he's gone. Isn't the world a better place now? You're free! Hooray! Now comes the fun part, you get to elect a new leader. Yes, you have to do it.** Come on now, everyone vote. Now show me your purple fingers. Yay! Don't you feel good? Well, not all of you voted and that means that the ones who didn't don't get any candy. Too bad. Oh, you're going to throw a fit? Well, we're going to have to teach you a lesson."

Needless to say the strategy isn't working, so lately we've resorted to two other trademarks of poor parenting: bribing our children to make them behave, and inflicting excessive cruelty on those who still won't. Is this nation building or child abuse? But I think that we are doomed in our efforts and it seems very clear why. Although we may actually give the Iraqis a democracy some day, they will not have earned it, and thus they will not appreciate it nor value it as much as if they had. Why should they really care if another dictator rises to power? Won't the U.S. come and bail them out again? And why should they work hard to rebuild their country when they can sit at home and let us do it for them? All we are doing is filling their hearts and minds with apathy and hatred. We need to give them more control over their fate. A lot more. It's that simple. Maybe we won't like their choices but the alternative is worse. Think about this, if you were an Iraqi, what would make you more proud, to submit to a government created, manipulated, and abused by a foreign power, or to make that foreign power suffer a humiliating retreat from your shores. As our efforts are undermined by our growing record of abuses, both physical and financial, more and more Iraqis will be choosing the latter option.

Regarding Iran, something which I discussed at length in the last Burning Blade, I can only say: my how things have changed. In just two short months the bombing of Iran has gone from seemingly inevitable to all but off the table. Someone blew up a mosque of great religious significance in Iraq and support for both the Iraq war and President Bush have fallen to new lows. It seems unlikely that voters will support any expansion of military action in the region. Also, the Iranian oil bourse never did open, and word has it that it will be delayed and have much less ambitious goals if and when trading does begin. Additionally, in Israel's last election they moved dramatically to the center and they probably won't be doing anything drastic until they get their new government sorted out. And finally, Russia and China look like they are going to veto any vote for Iranian sanctions. All tolled it appears that Iran has dodged a number of bullets, for now at least, but then again, things can change.

Regarding Fireaxe, in spite of having to crank out two newsletters and being away from my studio for a week I've been able to lay down over thirty minutes of very rough tracks for the new CD "Eternal Devotion to the Dark Goddess". Although the tracks are too rough for me to want to share them publicly, I can assure you that they are every bit as dark and as exhilarating as I felt they would be when I wrote them. This may be the best Fireaxe CD of them all.

A big ‘Hello’ to anyone receiving the Burning Blade for the first time. This is the Fireaxe newsletter.

** Actually, the U.S. first wanted to appoint a governing council for Iraq rather than let the Iraqis vote on who their leaders were. The U.S. had to abandon those plans after Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani insisted on direct elections. But to hear the administration speak of it today, you’d think that direct elections were what they wanted all along.