Today, U.S. soldiers handed control of Najaf over to the new Iraqi security forces. According to the LA Times, 1,500 Iraqi police and soldiers paraded around a soccer field to commemorate the occasion. The mood was jubilant, including musical performances, martial arts demonstrations, and this festive act:
At one point, a small group of soldiers stepped forward with a live rabbit and tore it to pieces. The leader bit out the heart with a yell, then passed around the blood-soaked remains to his comrades, each of whom took a bite. The group also bit the heads off frogs, as some of those in the crowd held their noses from the stench... Police then steered shiny new cruisers and motorcycles with ribbons and flowers stuck to their windshields around a track ringing the soccer field, which was still littered with fur and discarded frog legs.
The LA Times notes that chewing on live animals was a traditional display of "ferocity" for elite Iraqi units under Saddam Hussein and previous regimes. In a similar vein, you may recall that the U.N. reported back in September that torture in Iraqi prisons and detention facilities is "out of control" and is now even worse than it was under Saddam's rule.
When the U.S. invaded in March 2003, I recall a certain Citizen remarked cynically that when the U.S. attempted to occupy Iraq afterwards, we would learn why Saddam had to gas his population to maintain order. From the American use of incendiary white phosphorus in Fallujah, to widespread torture at Abu Ghraib, at Guantanamo, and under the aegis of coalition and government forces in Iraq... a frightening pattern has emerged. The celebration of the "new" special forces underscores the truth: as that Citizen predicted, the old ways have returned.
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