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CounterPunch
March 20,
2003
Pulverizing
Double Feature?
"Shock and Awe" Followed
by "Block to Block"
by DOUGLAS HERMAN
US Air Force veteran
This weekend, as the bombs fall on Baghdad, stop
by your local video store and rent one or both of these movies.
Rent either "Stalingrad" if you can find it, which
is the more accurate film, directed by Wolfgang Peterson, or
the Hollywoodized version of the same battle, called "Enemy
at The Gates". Then prepare yourself for what is tragically
in store for Baghdad.
In 1942, after several days of bombardment
by dive bombers of the German Luftwaffe pulverized Stalingrad,
an army numbering more than 250,000 men attacked that Russian
city. Ironically, the collapsed buildings from the air bombardment
blocked the advance of Hitler's armored columns and provided
Russian soldiers with an intricate maze of concealments to inflict
a bloody revenge. The German soldiers fought bravely but the
Russians fought even more fanatically, vengefully, not from any
loyalty to their ruthless dictator, Stalin, but for survival.
Block by block and street by street the
battle raged for weeks, and then months, as the weather worsened.
Winter crippled the German supply lines while the Russians strengthened.
If you watch the movie closely, you may find yourself sympathetic
to the soldiers of both sides, and angered at those leaders who
sent them out to die. Almost a half-million Russian soldiers
died in this ONE battle (about the total of all American deaths
in World War II), while the encircled German soldiers starved
or froze to death. Of the 90,000 German soldiers who finally
surrendered only 6,000 ever returned home.
Urban warfare is among the cruelest form
of human violence. "Never before had a civilian population
suffered so much," wrote British historian Anthony Beevor
of Stalingrad. Over 40,000 civilians were slaughtered in the
first week but the likely civilian death toll in the bombardment
of Baghdad may actually exceed that number. Beevor called the
Battle of Stalingrad "The city where World War II was won
and lost" but no such significance will ever be affixed
to the destruction of the Iraqi capitol.
South of Stalingrad lies the city of
Grozny.
In the winter of 1994 the Russian army
attacked that Chechen city, perhaps having forgotten the lessons
learned in the Battle of Stalingrad. Air strikes pulverized the
central core_more than 4,000 detonations per hour--knocking out
water and power but also leveling schools and hospitals, wrecking
an urban area with less than one tenth the poopulation of Baghdad.
Still the city did not surrender. Tens of thousands of civilians
were either killed or rendered homeless in the middle of winter
but Chechen fighters dug in and resisted the block-by-block attack.
The BBC reported that various human rights
groups, including Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders,
accused the
Russians of war crimes but the battle
continued. According to the Federation of American Scientists
<www.fas.com> , the Russian Government announced on December
28 that ground forces had begun to "liberate" the city
of Grozny one district at a time. Before the war Grozny had 450,000
inhabitants and was considered one of the most beautiful cities
in the Caucasus; now only a fraction inhabit the ruins. Not surprisingly,
Russians claimed that fewer than 20,000 civilians were killed
in the war, while a Chechen spokesman said the number exceeded
100,000 killed and a quarter-million wounded. This in a country
far smaller than Iraq.
The encirclement of Baghdad, for that
is what it is, closely resembles the epic battle of Stalingrad.
When the command comes from Bush and Rumsfeld to attack, American
and British bombers will pulverize the city in a matter of hours,
killing thousands, just as the Luftwaffe leveled Stalingrad and
the Russians ruined Grozny. In effect the war with Iraq will
be won, but the battle in the ruins of the city may have just
have begun.
The hellish house-to-house fighting won't
be shown on television. Pockets of resistance will likely be
obliterated by satellite-guided missiles after US commanders
radio GPS coordinates to offshore ships or circling warplanes.
God help any family hiding deep inside a targeted building; the
entire obliterated block will become a tomb in this war of "liberation".
Saddam Hussein, who closely resembles
Stalin in looks and manner, may have less to do with that resistance
of his troops than how the average Iraqi soldier feels toward
an American foe who has firebombed his family. Stalin, a far
more ruthless dictator than Hussein, executed 36,000 army officers
from 1936-1938, according to historian Beevor, but the average
Russian soldier fought bravely for his beleaguered country, just
as the average patriotic Iraqi may do. But Hitler, like Bush,
listened not to his generals but to Air Marshall Goering, who
like Donald Rumsfeld shares a background as a fighter pilot and
believe cities can be pounded into submission. The final irony
of the Battle of Stalingrad and the encirclement of Baghdad is
the prize itself.
In a twist of fate, Hitler diverted part
of his army from the coveted oilfields of the Caucasian region
of southern Russia to attack Stalingrad. The Nazi Reich, like
the present American Empire, demanded an uninterrupted flow of
oil, but Hitler's reach exceeded his grasp. God help us all if
diplomacy, and public opinion, cannot avert another aggressive,
immoral war with oil as a similar objective.
Douglas Herman,
a USAF veteran, served during the Vietnam War. Captain James
Herman, the author's father, served during World War II, and
loaded bombs on B-24s destined for Germany. He can be reached
at: douglasherman7@yahoo.com
Yesterday's
Features
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream (Interview)
Jason Leopold
Rumsfeld and Bush Sr. Opposed 1989 UN Investigation of Saddam
for Human Rights Violations
Josh Ruebner
An
Open Letter to My Former Dean, Paul Wolfowitz (and Other "Court"
Jews)
Mitchel Cohen
The
Gulf War 12 Years Later: Why Class Matters
Carlos Fuentes
The Insulting Insinuations of the Bush Regime
Fareed Marjaee
The Road to Jerusalem Goes Through Baghdad
Rick Giombetti
The Savagely Soft Underbelly
of the Anti-War Movement: Misquided Faith in the UN
Rich Procter
Rove Memo: How to Launch a War
Ritt Goldstein
Oil
War: the Smoking Guns
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War a Chance: the Anti-Peace Anthem
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