Cross-posted at
Clark Community Network.
Let's take a trip in the "Way Back Machine." All the way back to January, 2005. Perhaps you remember a Newsweek article about Iraq titled "The Salvador Option". In that article, the writers, Michael Hirsh and John Barry, reported that:
"...the Pentagon is intensively debating an option that dates back to a still-secret strategy in the Reagan administration's battle against the leftist guerrilla insurgency in El Salvador in the early 1980s. Then, faced with a losing war against Salvadoran rebels, the U.S. government funded or supported "nationalist" forces that allegedly included so-called death squads directed to hunt down and kill rebel leaders and sympathizers."
The article went on to restate long-pervasive rumors and accusations about John Negroponte...
"Among the current administration officials who dealt with Central America back then is John Negroponte, who is today the U.S. ambassador to Iraq."
More...
The implication was that the John Negroponte, using his diplomatic position as cover, had overseen the creation of death squads in 1980s Central America -- and that the Pentagon was about to follow the exact same gameplan in Iraq two decades later.
The article continued...
"Following that model, one Pentagon proposal would send Special Forces teams to advise, support and possibly train Iraqi squads, most likely hand-picked Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shiite militiamen, to target Sunni insurgents and their sympathizers..."
As we all know now, several months after this report became public, death squads coincidentally (sic) sprouted up throughout Iraq. Without public acknowledgement, of course, the "Salvador Option" clearly was in full-swing. And what do you know -- these death squads were Shiite!
But one question had always stuck in my reality-based brain. Why would the U.S. train Shiite death squads? With the majority of the voting population in Iraq, Shiites would very easily control the bulk of elected offices without any further violent interference on our part. If the U.S. wanted the Shiites to have control, as it appeared with the initial installment of Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, why the overkill with death squads, particularly if you want democracy to fluorish with majority rule? By sheer numbers alone, Iraqi Shiites would hold all the cards merely by voting.
Then came this story last week. The story leads with...
"US hopes of bringing troops home from Iraq in significant numbers this year appear dimmer than ever with Baghdad in the throes of a new wave of sectarian violence."
Of course, this sectarian violence is being blamed, in large part, on...take a guess. Yep, Shiite death squads! The very death squads John Negroponte created? Or, I should say, the very death squads John Negroponte created. (period)
And then came yesterday's NY Times report that Sunnis, in a complete about-face, now want U.S. forces to stay and protect them from Shiite death squads...
"As sectarian violence soars, many Sunni Arab political and religious leaders once staunchly opposed to the American presence here are now saying they need American troops to protect them from the rampages of Shiite militias and Shiite-run government forces."
"The pleas from the Sunni Arab leaders have been growing in intensity since an eruption of sectarian bloodletting in February, but they have reached a new pitch in recent days as Shiite militiamen have brazenly shot dead groups of Sunni civilians in broad daylight in Baghdad and other mixed areas of central Iraq."
Finally, the light bulb came on. Those in charge of our government right now don't want to exit from Iraq. Au contraire. They want to stay in Iraq as long as possible. Of course! That's why they never had an exit strategy in the first place. That's why they didn't send enough troops to keep the peace. That's why we disbanded the Iraqi security forces. That's why we haven't done jack to rebuild Iraq. That's why we're building massive military bases and the world's largest embassy. That's why military leaders today don't predict an exit before 2016. And that's why Sunnis (once known as Saddamists) now want us to stay.
Oil. Military contracts. Reconstruction projects. There's a lot of money being made (and stolen) in Iraq. And a lot more where that came from.
The death squads don't represent a failure of policy in Iraq. They represent a success. At least in the eyes of our current policymakers.