BAGHDAD, June 10 — With the four-month-old increase in American troops showing only modest success in curbing insurgent attacks, American commanders are turning to another strategy that they acknowledge is fraught with risk: arming Sunni Arab groups that have promised to fight militants linked with Al Qaeda who have been their allies in the past. […]
… In some cases, the American commanders say, the Sunni groups are suspected of involvement in past attacks on American troops or of having links to such groups. Some of these groups, they say, have been provided, usually through Iraqi military units allied with the Americans, with arms, ammunition, cash, fuel and supplies.
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It’s the least we could do after helping establish Shi’ite death squads in the Iraqi Interior Ministry and arming the Badr Brigade Iraqi Army, which is often comprised primarily of Shi’ites, except in Northern Iraq where the Kurds predominate.
Of course, we’re only helping the Sunni insurgents who were fighting us now fight Al Qaida. They’d never turn around and use those arms on us, would they?
In perhaps the boldest and most sophisticated attack in four years of warfare, four U.S. soldiers later found dead were first abducted from a compound by militants speaking English, wearing U.S. uniforms and carrying American weapons …
So, when does Bush announce we’re going to use tactical nukes to take out the United States military? That’s the next logical step for dealing with a state sponsor of terrorism, isn’t it? And isn’t what these US commanders are now doing the raison d’être for Our Dear Leader’s order authorizing US forces to kill or capture Iranians in Iraq? Namely, the arming and training of Iraqi insurgents who are killing Americans? Well, wasn’t it?
If all this makes your head spin, imagine how it feels to be an American soldier in Iraq this morning. Must be nice to know that the very people who blew off your buddy’s arms and legs, or crushed his skull in an IED attack yesterday, are now the recipients of US Government largesse. Especially since the US government has been sooo good about taking care of our disabled vets, once they can no longer serve as target practice for many of these same insurgents.
And they say anti-war protesters and politicians are demoralizing the troops? Must be why some Army commanders aren’t so keen on this “new way forward” strategy:
But critics of the strategy, including some American officers, say it could amount to the Americans’ arming both sides in a future civil war. The United States has spent more than $15 billion in building up Iraq’s army and police force, whose manpower of 350,000 is heavily Shiite. With an American troop drawdown increasingly likely in the next year, and little sign of a political accommodation between Shiite and Sunni politicians in Baghdad, the critics say, there is a risk that any weapons given to Sunni groups will eventually be used against Shiites. There is also the possibility the weapons could be used against the Americans themselves.
My bold prediction for the day? It isn’t merely a possibility that these weapons might be used against Shi’ites and American forces, it’s a certainty. Oh to be a defense contractor these days! Making weapons to kill anyone in Iraq, regardless of race, color, creed or national origin. And all being paid for (at grossly inflated prices) by the American taxpayer. What a racket is our free market in death!
