More news rolls in about the "successful tactics" being employed by the U.S. commandant in Iraq, General David Gaius Julius Petraeus. As we have noted here before, much of the relative drop in the death rate in the still-fertile killing fields of Iraq can be attributed to one of Petraeus' bold "counterinsurgency" innovations: surrendering whole swathes of territory to your enemy – and paying them handsomely for the privilege – in exchange for their promise not to kill your own troops for awhile.
Not since the Civil War days of George McClellan has an American general been so feted and trumpeted for his crushing defeats – although not even McClellan went as far as paying Rebel guerrillas like Bill Quantrill and his murderous bushwhackers to take over chunks of Union territory and run it as a personal fiefdom. But that is exactly what Petraeus is doing in Iraq. He is shelling out millions in taxpayer dollars to groups that only a few weeks ago were killing Americans and launching terrorist attacks with their allies in the extremist bands loosely grouped under the rubric "al Qaeda." (It's obvious that "al Qaeda" is losing its brand specificity and, like "xerox" or "zipper," is becoming a generic term applied to all manner of items beyond the original product.)
Of course, buying off your enemy is an ancient military tactic, and it
certainly beats killing each other – and innumerable "collaterals" in
the process. But Petraeus is not only paying terrorists and insurgents
and death squadders to lay off the roadside bombs and sniper fire in
the "Sunni Awakening" movement: he's giving them iron-fisted control
over various walled enclaves, where – surprise, surprise! – they are
lording it over the locals with brutal abandon, while American forces
look the other way, or actively assist.
The latest report comes from the pro-war, Murdoch-owned Sunday Times: "American-backed killer militias strut across Iraq."
It is one of a continuing series of stories in the UK press that go
behind the glowing "surge" PR now dominating the American media. It
begins with the story of Kahiriya Musa, whose husband was killed by
ethnic cleansers 18 months ago, and who now refuses to join the trickle
of Iraqis returning to their newly pacified neighborhoods. Here are
your tax dollars at work:
Asked when she intended to leave this squalor and return to
the comfortable family home, Kahiriya Musa, 30, is emphatic. “Never,”
she declares. “They will kill me if I return.” While one of her
husband’s killers has been arrested, she says, the other two have
joined the Baghdad Brigade, a Sunni militia funded by the American
forces which now holds sway in her old neighbourhood.
Members of the Baghdad Brigade receive $300 a man each month from the
Americans, who also provide vehicles, uniforms and flak jackets. In
return the brigade keeps out Al-Qaeda, dismantles roadside bombs and
patrols the area, a task performed with considerable swagger by many of
its 4,000 recruits.
The US military is delighted with the results achieved by the brigade
in Abu Ghraib and by similar groups in other former “hot spots” of
sectarian conflict that have seen a sharp decline in violence.
For Shi’ites such as Kahiriya Musa, however, a Sunni militia represents
another potential source of terror in a country where millions have
been traumatised by ethnic cleansing…
But even Sunni residents see trouble ahead. One pointed out former
members of the Islamic Army – a group once closely associated with
Al-Qaeda, whose atrocities included the murder of Enzo Baldoni, a
kidnapped Italian journalist – among the knights. In an Ameriya school
last week some of the knights showed that although they may have
switched allegiances, they still hold the fundamentalist beliefs that
drew them to Al-Qaeda in the first place.
Carrying their weapons, they went from one class to the next, looking
for mobile phones with “unIslamic” ringtones. One child with a pop
music ringtone was slapped and kicked in the legs as a warning to the
others.
Meanwhile, the targets of ethnic cleansing continue to suffer. Habib
Haji, a 65-year-old widower from Sab al-Boor, north of the capital,
received a letter giving him three days to leave with his daughter
Salwa, 15, or die. “I left immediately,” said Haji, whose 18-year-old
son Mehdi had already disappeared after going out to buy some
cigarettes. According to Haji, the death threat came from men who used
to be Al-Qaeda members but now form part of the awakening. Even the
militia commanders confirm that they have the Shi’ites in their
long-range sights after a turbulent few months…
Abu Omar, an intelligence officer with the Baghdad Brigade in Abu
Ghraib, was candid. “Of course the coming war is with the [Shi’ite]
militias,” he said. “God willing, we will defeat them and get rid of
them just as we did Al-Qaeda.”
Abu Maroof, one of the brigade’s commanders, said that he regarded the
Shi’ite militias, which include the Mahdi Army of the radical cleric
Moqtada al-Sadr, as more dangerous than the United States. But he is
also increasingly hostile to the government of Nouri al-Maliki, which
is reluctant to absorb militia members into the official Iraqi security
forces. “If the government continues to reject them, let it be clear
that this brigade will eventually take its revenge,” he warned.
In this of course, the goodly knight is as one with Petraeus' masters
back in Washington, who have obviously decided that putting tens of
thousands of Sunni militiamen on the imperial payroll will help
pressure their recalcitrant clients in Baghdad to play ball – or else. Antiwar.com quotes the latest Iraq Weekly Status Report from the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs:
Senior military commanders now portray the intransigence of
Iraq’s Shiite dominated government as the key threat facing the U.S.
effort in Iraq, rather than al-Qaida terrorists, Sunni insurgents or
Iranian-backed militias. Several U.S. military officials have expressed
growing concern over the Iraqi government’s failure to capitalize on
sharp declines in attacks against U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians. A
window of opportunity has opened for the government to reach out to its
former foes, said Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the commander of
day-to-day U.S. military operations in Iraq, but “it’s unclear how long
that window is going to be open.”
In other words, if the Shiite factions empowered by the U.S. invasion
don't get it in gear and let the American-backed Sunni militias get a
slice of the pie, then U.S. employees like Abu Maroof will "eventually
take their revenge." You could have a whole new round of civil war
between Shiite and Sunni factions that are both backed by the United
States: the usual win-win scenario, keeping Iraq supine, "justifying" a
continuing U.S. military presence, and ensuring American dominance of
whatever regime emerges from the mass bloodletting.
This is the reality that has always prevailed in Iraq, from the moment
that George W. Bush ordered the international war crime of military
aggression to begin to the latest "metric of success" in the Petraeus
surge. This war has never been anything more than a low and dirty game
of power politics for the benefit of a few elites – who are willing to
pay anyone to kill for them, or see anyone killed, as long as their
interests are served.
It seems like a century ago that President Bush landed on that carrier and declared victory -- and we are still in Iraq. How many more lives must be taken before it is finally concluded that we were deceived by the man in charge? Probably the soonest we can be out of that mess we never should have got into in the first place is several weeks after President Ron Paul swears his solemn oath of office -- and lives up to it. "We just don't do those illegal wars anymore, bottom line." (paraphrasing presidential-contender Congressman Ron Paul's message of the United States of America government conforming to its Constitution.
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November 28, 2007
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