PERHAPS no fact is more revealing about Iraq’s history than this: The Iraqis have a word that means to utterly defeat and humiliate someone by dragging his corpse through the streets.
The word is “sahel,” and it helps explain much of what I have seen in three and a half years of covering the war.
It is a word unique to Iraq, my friend Razzaq explained over tea one afternoon on my final tour. Throughout Iraq’s history, he said, power has changed hands only through extreme violence, when a leader was vanquished absolutely, and his destruction was put on display for all to see.
Most famously it happened to a former prime minister, Nuri al-Said, who tried to flee after a military coup in 1958 by scurrying through eastern Baghdad dressed as a woman. He was shot dead. His body was disinterred and hacked apart, the bits dragged through the streets. In later years, Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party crushed their enemies with the same brand of brutality.
“Other Arabs say, ‘You are the country of sahel,’ ” Razzaq said. “It has always been that way in Iraq.”
But in this war, the moment of sahel has been elusive. No faction — not the Shiite Arabs or Sunni Arabs or Kurds — has been able to secure absolute power, and that has only sharpened the hunger for it.
Listen to Iraqis engaged in the fight, and you realize they are far from exhausted by the war. Many say this is only the beginning.
The most depressing thing I have read about Iraq in a long while, courtesy of the Belgravia Dispatch, who also notes the casualty rate for our forces is increasing with the surge.
DougJ
Perhaps no fact is more revealing about the Bush administration than this: Americans now have a word that means to torture someone by simulating the feeling of drowning.
The word is “waterboarding.”
Pb
Maybe they got the idea from Achilles, though…
Dave
That’s ok, we’ll just go attack Iran, where they don’t have words like that.
DougJ
That’s not what Tom Friedman’s Iraqi cabbie says. He says we won’t know one way or the other for six months. And the guy’s the real deal: came here because the world’s flatness allowed him to, eats only halal meats, believes we did the right thing by popping the Islamic bubble in Iraq. I’ll take his word over the guys Ed Wong talks to in tea shops any day.
ThymeZone
No word more describes the whole rationale behind our war there: Dumb.
If anyone in the government had bothered to read the history of the region, they could have predicted the situation we have now. The notion that we would invade, run Saddam to ground, and then magically establish something like El Paso over there was just nuts to begin with.
The NYT pieces is quite right, these people aren’t done. Nowhere near done.
Wilfred
This doesn’t seem quite right, unless Iraqis have a greater sense of irony than I thought. The root SHL means to make something possible, or to enable something to happen. As a substantive, with the addition of vowel sounds, you get suhl which means a treaty or to stop fighting; < or the name sahl-easy going; or salah – righteous, like Salah-al-Deen (Saladin); Salih is the name of a prophet. The only use of Sahel that knew of is the area of the Sahara.
What they might mean is that there cannot be total peace until one side (or sides) is totally defeated, their will to fight totally crushed. In which case they would be making war exactly like Western countries do. The last paragraph, for example, is just as true for the American right, is it not? As is the urge for total humiliation of the enemy.
I hate to be pedantic, but breathless articles like this need to be taken with a bit of linguistic salt.
neil
So this is why we can’t ever leave, right?
Zombie Santa Claus
If this war has taught us nothing else, it’s taught us that Iraqi flowers are very, very unpleasant. They grow right along the road, but you’ll probably want to keep them away from your vehicle. The Iraqis like to greet us with them, but the last thing we need at this point is another batch of those posies.
Six months from now, when we’ve flattened Iraq, we’ll be that much closer to flattening the world. Then the insurgents won’t have anywhere left to hide, and we’ll all head over to McDonald’s for some freedom fries and spongiform encephalitis.
capelza
The Thracian’s enjoyed a good romp with a dead body in tow, too.
Alexander even indulged himself once…at Gaza.
Also, isn’t the Sahel some geographic/climate zone in Africa?
tBone
It’s right next to Macaca.
Iraqi flowers hate freedom almost as much as you moonbats do. And don’t get me started on their candy . . .
DougJ
You call it nuts, I call it an audacious role of the dice.
Zombie Santa Claus
I hear ya. That stuff tastes like shit.
Tim F.
The article claim that Iraq does not have a dominant power who can be beaten, dismembered and dragged through the streets. Unfortunately I think they are wrong about that.
Andrew
That’s part of the plan, America-hating moonbat.
Actually, seriously, it is.
DougJ
What about all the people Clinton murdered, disinterred, and dragged the streets of Washington? Isn’t that what happened to Vince Foster? And the liberal media mostly just ignored it.
Undeniable Liberal
Really, we realy ARE makin’ progress. The Decider Commander Guy said so. Just one more F.U. And I promise not to cum in your mouth, THIS time, trust me.
ThymeZone
Yes, and we have already have Pentagon types stating that this proves the surge is “working.”
Apparently the whole point of the surge is to let the Iraq and American governments go on vacation, and get some casualties out of the way while nobody is looking.
It’s no different from having your house fumigated while you go up north to the cabin for the summer. I mean, to Kennebunkport. Well, you know what I mean.
Jake
John, congrats on another excellent post title.
Fixed.
Tsulagi
I wonder if they have a word for a brain-dead CIC backed up by bobbleheaded fluffers.
Yep, and our KIA rate during The Surge has been running about 2:1 over the Iraqi Army. Of those IA that bother to show up for this theater. From those 18 IA brigades our Commander Guy said would be taking the lead.
However, not sure if ISF killed while planting IEDs count in the official KIA totals. That kind of stuff has been causing a little friction. Which led LTC Patrick Frank of the 101st Airborne to remark to an Iraqi captain…
This surge as the previous ones before it like Operation Together Forward are a joke. Different names or no names like the current one, but same results. Of course, though, the current one is a success that hasn’t happened yet. Or rather we haven’t been told it’s a success yet. That will happen later this year.
Pb
Wilfred,
Here’s another reference for you–apparently it’s slang, so maybe they do have a greater sense of irony than you thought:
The Other Steve
AH HA! There’s hope for Iraq!
Russia is demanding Royalty payments for AK-47 production!
This is going to drive the cost of weapons up, and anybody at all familiar with the Laffer curve knows this will result in a reduction in gun purchases in Iraq.
The Other Steve
Clearly the main problem in Iraq is the lack of a functioning cut flower market.
Zifnab
Man, remember back in the good old days when those fuckers were communist?
Rome Again
But, Czar Nicholas and his offspring are dead. There is no royalty now!
Rome Again
Whoops! Apologies for the copy/paste on that blockquote, that was from another thread LMAO…. time to go home.
That’s the one I wanted, yeah!
Jackmormon
Russia is demanding Royalty payments for AK-47 production!
Ok, this is the funniest thing I’ve read for weeks.
Rome Again
Poor you!
cleek
i preferred the first. it had to be either head-snapping absurdity or an unfathomable inside joke. i assumed the former.
ATS
Sahel eh? Now Dick Cheney has something to look forward to.
Hey, after living with Lynne, it would a be like a month in the country.