The Calm Before the Conflagration
The United States is funding and in many cases arming the three ethnic factions in Iraq-the Kurds, the Shiites and the Sunni Arabs. These factions rule over partitioned patches of Iraqi territory and brutally purge rival ethnic groups from their midst. Iraq no longer exists as a unified state. It is a series of heavily armed fiefdoms run by thugs, gangs, militias, radical Islamists and warlords who are often paid wages of $300 a month by the U.S. military. Iraq is Yugoslavia before the storm. It is a caldron of weapons, lawlessness, hate and criminality that is destined to implode. And the current U.S. policy, born of desperation and defeat, means that when Iraq goes up, the U.S. military will have to scurry like rats for cover.
The supporters of the war, from the Bush White House to Sen. John McCain, tout the surge as the magic solution. But the surge, which primarily deployed 30,000 troops in and around Baghdad, did little to thwart the sectarian violence. The decline in attacks began only when we bought off the Sunni Arabs. U.S. commanders in the bleak fall of 2006 had little choice. It was that or defeat. The steady rise in U.S. casualties, the massive car bombs that tore apart city squares in Baghdad and left hundreds dead, the brutal ethnic cleansing that was creating independent ethnic enclaves beyond our control throughout Iraq, the death squads that carried out mass executions and a central government that was as corrupt as it was impotent signaled catastrophic failure.
The United States cut a deal with its Sunni Arab enemies. It would pay the former insurgents. It would allow them to arm and form military units and give them control of their ethnic enclaves. The Sunni Arabs, in exchange, would halt attacks on U.S. troops. The Sunnis Arabs agreed.
The U.S. is currently spending hundreds of millions of dollars to pay the monthly salaries of some 600,000 armed fighters in the three rival ethnic camps in Iraq. These fighters-Shiite, Kurd and Sunni Arab-are not only antagonistic but deeply unreliable allies. The Sunni Arab militias have replaced central government officials, including police, and taken over local administration and security in the pockets of Iraq under their control. They have no loyalty outside of their own ethnic community. Once the money runs out, or once they feel strong enough to make a thrust for power, the civil war in Iraq will accelerate with deadly speed. The tactic of money-for-peace failed in Afghanistan. The U.S. doled out funds and weapons to tribal groups in Afghanistan to buy their loyalty, but when the payments and weapons shipments ceased, the tribal groups headed back into the embrace of the Taliban.
The Sunni Arab militias are known by a variety of names: the Iraqi Security Volunteers (ISVs), neighborhood watch groups, Concerned Local Citizens, Critical Infrastructure Security. The militias call themselves “sahwas” (”sahwa” being the Arabic word for awakening). There are now 80,000 militia fighters, nearly all Sunni Arabs, paid by the United States to control their squalid patches of Iraq. They are expected to reach 100,000. The Sunni Arab militias have more fighters under arms than the Shiite Mahdi Army and are about half the size of the feeble Iraqi army. The Sunni Awakening groups, which fly a yellow satin flag, are forming a political party.
The Sunni Arab militias, though they have ended attacks on U.S. forces, detest the Shiite-Kurdish government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and abhor the presence of U.S. troops on Iraqi soil. They take the money and the support with clenched teeth because with it they are able to build a renegade Sunni army, a third force inside Iraq, which they believe will make it possible to overthrow the central government. The Sunni Arabs, who make up about 40 percent of Iraq’s population, held most positions of power under Saddam Hussein. They dominated Iraq’s old officer corps. They made up its elite units, including the Republic Guard divisions and the Special Forces regiments. They controlled the intelligence agencies. There are several hundred thousand well-trained Sunni Arabs who lack only an organizational structure. We have now made the formation of this structure possible. These militias are the foundation for a deadlier insurgent force, one that will dwarf anything the United States faced in the past. The U.S. is arming, funding and equipping its own assassins.
There have been isolated clashes that point to a looming conflagration. A Shiite-dominated unit of the regular army in the late summer of 2007 attacked a strong Sunni Arab force west of Baghdad. U.S. troops thrust themselves between the two factions. The enraged Shiites, thwarted in their attack, kidnapped relatives of the commander of the Sunni Arab force, and American negotiators had to plead frantically for their release. There have been scattered incidents like this one throughout Iraq.
If the U.S. begins, as promised, to withdraw troops it will be harder to keep these antagonistic factions apart. The cease-fire by the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, extended a few days ago, could collapse. And if that happens a civil war, unlike anything U.S. forces have experienced in Iraq, will begin. Such a conflagration, with the potential to draw in neighboring states and lead to the dismemberment of Iraq, would be the final chapter of the worst foreign policy blunder in American history.
Chris Hedges, who graduated from Harvard Divinity School and was for nearly two decades a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, is the author of “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.“
©2008 TruthDig.com
I believe the repugs and their neocon leadership want an escalation of war through the election because they feel it will tilt voters in their direction as they play on fear and emphasize the Dims as “weak” on military solutions. They also want to ensure that even if the Dims win, we’ll be stuck in the bloody mire they’ve created for years to come.
That they can do this is largely the fault of the Dims for allowing things to have gotten this far and not persuing impeachment proceedings against this administration. After all, they ARE on the same team . . .
The last paragraph is the best pretext for keeping the troops in Iraq permanently; if we leave they’ll kill each other. This was also a reason for us to garrison South Vietnam permanently; if we left there would be a bloodbath.
Perhaps we could let the natives decide whether to have a civil war, then help with the reconstruction when they’re done.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/18722376/the_myth_of_the_surge
It’s sad reading (except for war-mongers and other sadists).
I think you are right Jaded, I am even waiting for another terroist attack to seal the deal.
Verdict on our aims to destabilize the entire Middle East:
So far - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!
The situation is on track to explode as stated in the PNAC 1998 diatribe.
It is wickedly delicious that the United States Army and Marine Corps plus the diplomatic corps stationed in Baghdad’s “Green Zone,” are becoming more and more dependent for their personal safety on the very people, the Sunni dominated Baathist army of Saddam Hussein, who were summarily dismissed by L. Paul Bremer’s de-Ba’athification order of November 2003.
I’m sure the irony of the current situation on the ground in Iraq is not lost on reporter Chris Hedges but it certainly is on the administration, the mainstream media and the Republican rank and file.
The bombing of the Mosque in Nasiriya, was an act unprecedented in the History of Islam. That event is seen as the spark, setting off this sectarian conflagration. I’ve always questioned the official version of that event.
Arming and including Shiite Militia in the security operations in Baghdad, (mostly Sunni), during the program of De-Ba’athification, gave credence to my suspicions.
Thank you for putting the “Surge” in proper context and illuminating the clear consequences of this policy in the immediate future. The touted success of the “surge” is a consequence of arming, recruiting and paying, Sunni insurgents. This now seems to confirm my suspicions.
I’ve always asserted that permanent bases, regional domination and expanded conflict were the true aim of the Invasion of Iraq. I knew we’d be engaging with Iran and possibly Syria eventually.
All of the above display the well known modus operandi, the signature of JOHN NEGROPONTE’… replete with death squads, false flag, black ops and disinformation in the media.
The plan is Civil War. I don’t believe, that THEY ever believed, their own predictions regarding the “cake walk” in Iraq. This is how they will justify expansion. Looking at Bush, many decry this position, rightly pointing out “Bush is not this bright.” That may be true, but the evil, Machiavellian brilliance of his handlers, can’t be denied.
Ritter is right. Whoever inherits the White House… expect this Neocon juggernaut to continue, un-derailed.
There is one number that should not be forgotten — $10,000,000,000,000. That is a minimum estimate of the value of the oil still to be pumped out from beneath the sand in Iraq. Most of the chicanery, murder, mayhem, deception, subversion of democracy, and other affronts to human decency can be explained by that number (of course with the remaining portion attributable to neocon insanity and megalomania). Many of the members of the Bush criminal gang, with their allies and cronies in the oil and related industries, are determined to squeeze as much profit for themselves as they can out of that oil. Their religion, based on unbridled greed, demands it, and they would absolutely despise themselves if they did not break every law, kill or maim or poison every child or other human being, break every promise, and violate every standard of human conduct necessary to succeed.
Wait. They’re not “insurgents”, they’re “terrorists” or “freedom fighters”. Get with the program.
I agree with cranky_chatter
remember the British agents dressed as Iraqis with IEDs and other bombs in hand that were arrested? British army blew down jail to get them out before Iraqi interrogation.
We probably did same at Nasirya to justify our presence.
Colin Powell warned Bush and the neocons that “if you break it, you own it.”
This warning became policy. The U.S. now owns Iraq (the plan from day one).
The U.S. now has it’s own Gaza to use and abuse.
There are many lines of policy that converge in Iraq. They have in common, racism, imperialism, militarism, resource theft, marginalization of indigenous peoples.
More of the same from post WWII America.
Unless a third of the Shiite population has been killed, Chris Hedges has his numbers wrong. When the invasion began, it was roughly 60% Shiite, 20% Kurd and 20% Sunni. Of course, the Kurds are in Northern Iraq, which they consider autonomous territory along with it’s oil.
Otherwise, I think he’s accurately detailed the situation. We’ve unleashed a catastrophe, and I can’t imagine any outcome that isn’t horrific and bloody. I can only think that the fewer Iraqis left, the fewer to object to our oil grab. History, if we get to have one, will be saying unkind things about us.
kathyodat
Paying Sunni’s $300.00 a month while American Veterans cannot get care and Disabled Americans cannot get care is hubris. If we Americans expect to be respected we must learn to pin the tail on the real arce.
I hope this comes back to haunt America. I hope that America gets invaded. I hope that many Americans get ethnically cleansed, face starvation and other calamities. America, you cause other people to suffer, karma will see to it that you suffer the same.
40% Sunni Arab? Perhaps he meant 40% Sunni?
But Hedges makes a good point. It appears to me that the US has made a strategic move in order to get its oil laws passed. The Shia led government, which depends on US for survival, was not cooperating with the US written legislation and hoped to wait it out, knowing the US must eventually leave and that the Shia are superior numerically and have a strong Iran to the east.
So the US has massively armed the Sunni insurgents, who no doubt seek to attack and replace the central government. My guess is US officials then went to the Maliki government and said “Well, we can leave anytime if you want. In fact, the US people want us out right away. So, if you want us to leave, we will leave. But I dont know who is going to protect you from those Sunni militias we just gave all our weapons to.”
Seems like good leverage for the US to use against the central government of Iraq, and pressure them for legislation favorable to US business interests, including control of the resouces
forextrader: I totally understand your frustration BUT would’nt you rather light one candle of hope than curse the darkness!…I’m always blown away by the erudition of a vast majority of posters on this CD site.
Pepe Escobar reported that the Iranian oil exchange (IIPE) opened on Feb. 20 after three years of delays and has begun trading in Iran’s currency and soon Russia’s. Sizzle, sizzle. Article is at atimes.com
Divide and conquer. The US has no intention of withdrawing its troops, and the Iraqis are easier to handle when they are fighting each other.
They were cooperating until John Negroponte and James Steele were brought in to set up Shiite death squads.
I believe that the plan all along was to foment strife in order to justify US occupation for as long as the oil lasts.
http://wagelaborer.blogspot.com/2008/02/bush-incompetence-in-iraq-enabling.html
Re:Jaded Prole
The War party doesn’t want an escalation in Iraq for two reasons; the first is that the uneasy peace will used as an election tool to claim that the surge worked, but more importantly the War party needs a more stable Iraq to launch their invasion to the East to grab Iranian oil fields.
Re:BeForKids
Thanks for pointing out Hedges mistake about the 40% Sunni populace. He might be referring to the Baghdad area, but he didn’t say so. Besides that, I believe he is correct in his assessment about the U.S. arming their own future assassins.
Re:forextrader
Nasty stuff you’re writing. Americans are not responsible for what is happening in Iraq. The U.S. government is. All you have to do is to read CD everyday to find out that the public is horrified by what our government has done. As for ‘electing’ George, the first time he was ‘judicially elected’ and the second time DIEBOLD seems to have played a part in it as well. On top of all that corporate America only offers up corporate friendly candidates to the public (John Kerry and George Bush were not that different) thereby eliminating any chance of a reformist coming to power. Redirect your anger at the real culprits in D.C.
You have it right, greenerthanthou.
For further support for his view - just google “Project for a New American Century” (PNAC).
” Americans are not responsible for what is happening in Iraq. The U.S. government is.”
Wrong, wrong, wrong. At the times these events began to take place, the majority of the citizenry supported them.
We have yet to take action against the government. We have NOT risen up to try to take back our Constitution. We have sat back and whined about it. The streets are empty in spite of the continuing theft of our values, honor and dignity.
The United States government and military industrial complex has been attempting to mold other countries to their advantage for over 100 years. Most of the time they have been lucky enough to get away with it and only made alot of enemies that weren’t strong enough to stand up to us. This administration is too dumb to continue the tradition and has gotten us into a dangerous mess by invading a soverign religeously divided country, without knowing their history and ethnic problems and compounded it’s mistakes.
Chris is right. I think that when Maktada al Sadr thinks that he is strong enough to end the cease fire and release his Mahdi Army, the fireworks will begin and our troops had better either be gone or run for cover. We will be the common enemy of both sides and will be caught in the crossfire.
Arming the Sunni is not a mistake. It’s a calculated move in the game of divide and conquer. The British did the same thing in India.
Sure, they had to put down a few rebellions by local troops they had previously armed, but the benefits of dividing the natives outweighed the costs, in their estimate.
Who knows? The Sunni in Iraq may end up being our own “Ghurkas”.
One thing to remember… this war is being run by Oil Men. They’re patient, they’re accustomed to spending other people’s money, and they know how keep the investors from bolting when the new holes turn up dry. They’re in this for the long haul.
All we can do is show our fellow citizens that the whole enterprise is as fradulent as Enron.
In a just world, this should go down before 01/20/09, that way the lame-brained imbeciles who caused it would get to watch their sorry scheme fall apart.
Ditto for the melt-down of our banking system due to ponzi-scheme verticle integration of brokerages, mortgage financing, and banking in contradiction of the wisdom of the Glass-Stiegel Act passed in the thirties to prevent just such a possibility and repealed on Bozo-Bill Clinton’s watch with the eager help of the neocon rubber-stamp Congress and Senate.
Unlike the depression of the thirties, we won’t have the resource base (spell access to petroleum for everything from agriculture to transportation to power generation as well as strategic metals)or a currency worth anything–it is going to be depression with a capital D.
This will lead to a demoralized and then angry and irrational population where public saftey will be non-existant and poitical crazies will gather ever increasing followings of desperate people.
Kind of like what we have done to Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, and every other nation where we have meddled for the past 50-60 years. As Malcolm X opined after the Kennedy assassination,”the chickens are coming home to roost”.
Important date to keep in mind is that of the provincial elections which have been reported to be scheduled for 10/01/2008 (irrc) …
Al-Sadr and Mahdi expect (reasonably) to sweep much of the Shiia south … there is good reason to anticipate large scale election fraud by the incumbent rival Shiia … fireworks, indeed.
Confounding matters, of course, is John McCain who apparently said today that his success is tied to convincing Americans that the “surge” is “working” …
It was another bloody weekend all the way around … did anyone notice?
Curmudgeon99 said:We have yet to take action against the government. We have NOT risen up to try to take back our Constitution. We have sat back and whined about it. The streets are empty in spite of the continuing theft of our values, honor and dignity….
How very true. The majority of “Americans” will not get off their butts to even participate in a demonstration against this madness. They seem to have more important things to do like go to football, basketball, baseball games or watch American Idol or go shopping for the next bargain they can put on their maxed out charge cards. March 19th is the FIFTH Anniversary of the US INVASION of Iraq. What will you be doing that day to let your government know that you are
SICK OF IT?!!! Check out www.sickofitday.org. Lots of ideas there….
Standard issue reply by the US government on Iraq War progress:
Things are going well. Freedom is on the march. This month Sadr has issued a cease-fire. Less bombings and killings but we still have a long way to go since the country is in ruins, there are no jobs, soldiers get blown up regularly and a few stray rockets always seem to go off in the wrong places. Overall, we’re cautiously optimistic.
Repeat over and over again for the next 50 (100?)years before the oil runs out.
Dr WU-the last of the big time thinkers
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE???
This morning on NPR (irrc, and I think I do) there was a segment on how “we” are training Iraqi in carpentry and plumbing and the like … when they complete training and get certified, they can work for KBR and other American contractors ….
There is SO much wrong with this picture it’s hard to know where to start … but what about all the Iraqi carpenters and plumbers (and electricians!!!) our invasion put out of work? Why isn’t the Iraqi government doing this “jobs training program”? just for starters …
There was, of course, no mention of how these worthy students are selected or vetted or under what sort of security this “schooling” is taking place …
Illiteracy was always fairly high in Iraq … among the poor and peasant classes … as it is in much of the world where for the large numbers of poor, education is simply a luxury they cannot afford and don’t really “need” … when you’re part of that world that lives on a dollar a day or less.. but providing security for the elementary, middle and high schools would certainly seem to be worthwhile … For a whole generation, their education has been disrupted for five years.
It’s “nice” we’re training Iraqis to use power tool. Aren’t we grand?
ALEXNOSAL
‘all you have to do is read c.d. every day to find out that the public is horrified by what our government has done’. all you have to do is read c.d. every day to find out that it is only 250,000 of the millions of public in the u.s.a. every day who are concerned enough to enter this site and comment. that is a ‘minority’ public. and that is why atrocities will be continually perpertrated.
alexnosal,
With respect to your opinion, forextrader has expressed outrage of the murder, rape, carnage, torture, and destruction of a country that did nothing to us. He/she? is angry as most of us are and I have said similar things myself. We have an all-volunteer military, and if they choose to participate in war crimes for the most dictatorial regime in U.S. history, then I also cannot in good conscience support them. Using your logic, the Japanese who killed about 10-12 million Chinese people during their imperial quest for world domination were not guilty because it was the Tojo government that sent them there and they were “only following orders.” (I know, that phrase was used by the Germans at the Nuremberg Trials) The infamous “Rape of Nanking” was carried out by “a few bad apples” that were young, uneducated and “poorly trained.” Remember Abu Ghrab? (Spelling may be wrong) Does the name Lyndie England ring a bell?
Eah nation has a collective debt and each individual likewise. Some call it “trials and tribulations”, some say “cause and effect”, some say, “you reap what you have sown,” and others call it “karma.”
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” William Shakespeare.
I support the “troops” who refuse to participate.and understand forextrader’s sentiments very well.
Some people need to clear their heads or be more honest as to who they are and want they really want.
ANYONE who says EVERYONE is responsible is spouting a muddled and confused simplicity of thought which reveals just how little they understand reality.
Don’t tell me that I am responsible for something I fought against from the start because others like Bush/Cheney got what they wanted. Don’t tell any anti-war protestor that they are responsible because at least they actually walked the walk as did people all over the world. They did NOT agree to all this.
All those who say everyone is responsible for something is hardly much different thinking than some maniac student who shoots his classmates because ‘they are all responsible’ because he is unhappy.
Is the world so confusing and complex that they must apply such generalities? Yeah…I think so…thinking things through must give them a headache and their emotions need simplicity.
Do these generalities equally apply to them? Those who live here …or do they somehow except themselves because they know they didn’t agree with Bush’s mess? If it is everyone then that is them too. Or is that too simple to understand?
And get it straight… WE did not GET the oil… we BUY it like everyone else ($101 per barrel) plus the loss of hundreds of billions which are taken literally from the mouths of our children… and in the cost in lives.
Maybe their emotionalism is frustrated that ‘nothing is being done’ fast enough? Yet they blame people who are trying and have tried to do what they can to prevent this and end this.
Who did this? Bush and co. or the protest marchers? Sorry if this is too simple for some but … NO, it was not both.
We were attacked by bin laden and then Bush used that anger to LIE to us. Some might try to consider this … and include themselves along with EVERYONE else.
If you blame everyone… then THAT includes them as well.
Simple ain’t it.
The worse blunder in American political history, Chris? Rather a sweeping statement I reckon given the series of monumental blunders that America has made in the past and continues to make.
America still hasn’t learned that throwing a bomb at a problem is not a solution.
Nuking Iran will be the next blunder!
www.dangerouscreation.com
The number one concern of Americans is the economy (themselves), the second one is health care (themselves), and third. The Iraq war. And when they say the Iraq war, they mean losing money and soldiers for nothing. THE 1 MILLION DEAD IRAQIS ARE NOT AN ISSUE. As they go to vote, very, very few will have on their minds those 1 million because, to start, the figure is not recognized or publicized. God crowned our good with a black hood, for everyone to see.
I’ll tell you who is responsible, anybody who doesn’t think the most important issue is the 1 million dead.
It is a reflection of just how inept and corrupt this administration has been that we arm all sides with our men in the middle.
The problem is that the mess Bush created in Iraq will not be fixed by Bush in Iraq. So now what?
Bush mess spreads and because our media (Bush’s real base) spins the truth and tries to say this mess isn’t as messy as it is… it is prolonged. The media’s compliance is why all this was allowed to worsen into utter chaos. We are not allowed to see what Bush has done. So when he says the surge is working, how are most Americans supposed to know if that is true or not?
Where are the mainstream media reports on the condition of things in Iraq? Lakes of sewage in Baghdad… Cholera and the misery of 70% unemployment… and Bush cuts food rations too. Where were the media last year and the years before that? They were cheerleading us with Bush/Rove’s republican spin. While Haliburton et al was pocketing billions and billions … who supported Bush and co.? Our media.
And yeah it is real bad there now… Bush’s continuing lies stall so that republicans don’t have to face their failure in an election year. Dems don’t impeach because they are also part of this status quo old guard and have closed ranks around their semi-permanent hold on our government.
Think not? Mccain and Hillary both take swipes … not at each other but against Obama. Yeah well…same old same old.
We have created a hell in Iraq. Bush cronyism betrayed our country and it’s men and the Iraqis and has in fact destabilized the world.
After 9/11 the whole world was behind us and Bush could have changed the world but instead he arrogantly and simplistically threw it to the dogs of war. Where is bin laden Mr. Bush? The terrorist who attacked us.
All you’ve done is attacked Iraq and turned it into insanity. So now what … Mr. Bush?
So the surge is working we are told. Working what? The longer we stay the worse it gets… anybody else notice that?
A holy war was the intention all along. Both here and abroad
Forextrader is, unfortunately, right. People will continue a course of action until the costs far outweigh the benefits. Until our foreign policy really starts to bite us in the ass - through greater casualties, a bankrupt treasury and economic collapse - Americans will not make any serious efforts to change course. We’ll continue to believe in the comfortable myth that our actions in the world are largely benign, that we are a shining city on a hill. Sure, some of us went to anti-war demonstrations, but we’re a minority, just like the dissidents in Hitler’s Germany. Most of those who are now against the war only turned against it because it didn’t end as quickly or victoriously as they thought it should. And make no mistake, we will reap what we sow. Already our economy is being strangled by the burden of maintaining our empire, and none of the leading political candidates are willing to discuss the underlying causes that got us into this mess. A hearty thanks to all of those who tried to change the course, but we’re almost on top of the iceberg now. Best find a lifeboat before it’s too late.
Actually LORD TRIGO, Obama recently spoke about changing american’s mind set and accepting that we are not better than anybody and should be more humble. I find that to be very different for a politician. That is dealing with the root csuses to a certain extent. I was shocked and impressed. Maybe there is hope.
If the vast majority of americans were actually outraged, as the people on CD are, Bush would have never been re-elected. Sure, Diebold may have played a part, but the election was close enough to prove the a large part of the country was oblivious. If the majority of Americans really cared, we would storm the white house and kick out bush/cheney and everyone else. But people don’t care. Or they care, but they think waiting four years to vote is the patriot thing. This is not George Bush’s war, this is america’s war. We were/are/always will be responsible for BushCo actions because we are the ones that let them do this. And even if the election was rigged, it doesn’t matter, because to the “terrorist” and the rest of the world, WE elected Bush and therefore he represents us. Shame on America.
twalsh, you got it right. The rest of the world was waiting for us to throw Bush out and it didn’t happen. I remember Karl Rove gleefully rubbing his hands together, saying he loved close elections. After that, the rest of the world considered us complicit. We didn’t do our job and rein in the maniac.
kathyodat
Saddam Hussein had the same problem of preventing various factions from tearing each other to pieces. Eventually the country was stabilized with his strongarm tactics, and some of them were very nasty. But, hey, he had arms and even chemicals and gas from the U.S. as an ally, and there was a lot of oil to sell.
Baghdad, a secular city was a beautiful and modern city with the Sunni women wearing the latest fashions if they so chose; the medical establishment and hospitals, especially various surgical specialties, were considered the best in the world.
The Shiites suffered as the fundamentalists of the country who followed Sharia law. Saddam kept a tight rein on them. The Kurds also were itching for independence, and he kept a tight rein on them too.
But the country was stable, and killings that took place, horrendous as they were, are small potatoes [and I mean no disrespect for the dead and the loved ones who still mourn] compared to the devastation The Great Liberator has wrought.
Personally, I think it was incompetence, ignorance and unbridled greed, and monumental egotistical over-reaching on the part of Bush, Cheney, Rice, Pearl, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Rove … et al. to believe they could go in to Iraq, win a war, and in short order get the oil fully under control of the mega-oil corporations. Plus I think none of them understood the culture, the deep and rich cultural history or the religion of Islam and its various factions. Educated idiots, it seems.
The sanctions on Saddam Hussein weren’t working well enough when he was still managing to sell oil, and there were black market operations. So what to do?
Besides there was the desire to get that huge, lengthy UNOCAL pipeline built and operational for the natural gas available in the countries bordering northern Afghanistan.
So … plans obvious now were made before the Selection of 2000. And then you have to have a vehicle, a spark to set the whole thing off. A GREAT BIG SHOCK & AWE. 9/11 … the greatest moral issue of these years, and most of the people do not know it was an inside job. With the evidence available now, you’d have to be an absolute fool to believe that the boxcutters managed it under the instructions of the men having their Kangaroo Court trial in Guantanamo now. And whatever happened to Ossama bin Laden in his cave?
Cheney as Halliburton CEO was still making deals with Saddam for oil contracts in 1997 into 1999. Greed is a terrible thing.
He evidently proposed himself to GW to be Vice President. How convenient.
Now, I think, we set Sunnis against Shi’ites and the Kurds against other Kurds and throw in Blackwater, reconstruction money that goes right back to the coffers of corrupt U.S. corporations; slave labor from East Timor with terrible living conditions at maybe $15 to $30 a day finishes the building of the American Mega-Embassy compound with its fountains, movie theatres, air-conditioning, restaurants, pool, luxury rooms, and then let them build more military bases …
… and the U.S. taxpayer keeps paying, with the very richest taxpayers getting a big break — that John McCain now wants to make permanent too — and defense industry corporations rake in the bucks … and more than a million get killed and the population is on the run, or decimated from the effects of DU … and the troops of the National Guard and regular army and marines commit suicide at a rate never before seen, and keep fighting for what?
The intent is to keep it going, keep killing, keep the electricity off and water faucets dry and sooner or later the people will agree to sign over rights to 80 per cent of all their oil.
Less than a year left now … Do you really think these guys and Condi Rice are gonna’ let this all go when they are so close? … at least they think so … or those members of congress who’ve been making fast mega-bucks on this all along … the ones who also get the huge tax breaks…
… unless you can get John McCain in there who’s willing to stay “for a hundred years” if necessary.
And of the top two on the other side of the aisle, who will play ball more …
or if that doesn’t work … I’ll bet anyone here, there’s a new SHOCK scenario prepared … and the financial markets collapse and its 1929 to 1938-039 all over again … and then martial law … and The American Union and the Amero and on and on and on … and the push for OIL & OTHER DOMINATION continues …
And I hate even the radio broadcasts … the news items ticked off about the dead and the dying and the discussions going on, burbling along … as if somehow it’s all normal and we aren’t in a grave state of emergency [underline grave] right now … we citizens of the United States.
DENIAL IS NOT JUST A RIVER IN EGYPT AND IT’S SO MUCH MORE COMFORTING TO PRETEND THAT IT’S ALL WORKING JUST LIKE IT ALWAYS DID AND WE’LL PULL OUT OF THIS UNPLEASANTNESS … but even as I write a human chain of Palestinian men, women, and children stand next to walls imprisoning them in the Gaza strip. Walls bordering the country of Israel, and they cry out for the world to help them. Thirsty, hungry, cold, with minimal medical care, and raw sewage flowing all around their unlighted hovels …
I think of Anne Frank and wonder whether just before her end in Bergen-Belsen if she would still have believed that people are really good at heart.
Do we get to keep the oil?
Lizard: Obama strikes me as a rather thoughtful man, and the most likely to take an objective look at the situation. Historically, however, the odds are not good. The U.S. could do what no other nation, to my knowledge, has done: walk away from an unmanageable empire and prepare for a “soft landing,” rather than a hard fall. If Obama is able to make this happen, more power to him. However, I think he has his work cut out for him.
Don’t forget that they (BushCo) wanted this war. And they want it to spread and involve Israel. Otherwise, how will they ever get the End Times going?
So how is it the Shiites are an ethnic group? I thought they were Iraqi Arabs of a different religious persuasion than the Sunni. But I guess I was mistaken, just like in Yugoslavia when we had the Serbs, Croatians and Muslims. Again some people just don’t have any ethnicity other than their religion. I wonder why that is.
4thefuture says:
But I guess I was mistaken, just like in Yugoslavia when we had the Serbs, Croatians and Muslims. Again some people just don’t have any ethnicity other than their religion. I wonder why that is.
*************
Not quite correct. In Iraq we have the Kurds (non-Arabic ethnicity and mostly Muslim) and the Arasic Sunni Muslims (who were the elites under Saddam) and the Arabic Shiite Muslims (who comprise 60% of the population and therefore a ruling democratic majority).
In Yugoslavia The battle lines were drawn between the Serbs (who are Orthodox Christiasn), the Croats (who are Roman Catholic), the Bosnians (who are Muslim) and the Kosovar Albanians (who are also Muslim). Tito was able to cobble together a federation of these fractious elements largely by rotating power among the various ethnic groups (similar to how Lebanon works).
Milosovic like a bumbling fool decided that it was better for Serbia to control everything because it made him popular with the Serbs. In the process he facilitated the dismantling of the most successful socialist economic state in Eastern Europe (which Western business and governments dearly wanted so as to make the place easier to divide and conquer).
A closer paralell to Iraq would have been the situation in South Africa where a small Caucasian minority of European ancestry imposed its will on an overwhelming majority of Black Africans (except that in Iraq there are no Desmond Tutu’s or Nelson Mandela’s waiting patiently for the chance to mediate the conflict because the US military and L Paul Bremmer took care of that possibility).
It is a series of heavily armed fiefdoms run by thugs, gangs, militias, radical Islamists and warlords who are often paid wages of $300 a month by the U.S. military.
Money, money - it’s the U.S.’s principal weapon (along with television). With money the U.S. has been able to bribe thousands of individuals and thereby mold societies and control the fates of nations. When George Bush is finally confined to a tiny cell in a high security prison, let’s make sure that he has at least a hundred million dollars cash with him in there to keep him company. And a big barrel of oil to sit on.
It’s the same news being read by the same people. Changes will not be read until people in the center start reading this stuff in mainstream newspapers.
http://www.ryanhartman.wordpress.com
Kevin Maley,
You are correct and this article wrongly implies the Sunni POLITICAL faction as being 40% of Iraq. You only get to 40% or so if you lump the Sunni Arabs (Saddams old faction) together with the Kurds (whose religion is Sunni, but are actually a different ethnicity). The Kurds definitely DO NOT consider themselves aligned with the Sunni Arabs (old Saddam supporters).
The real (political) split among Kurd - Sunni - Shia is 20% - 20% - 60%. Source CIA factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/iz.html
Well, bush just said 2 seconds ago Republicans WILL be in the White House after the election, hmmmm.
I wonder what the inference was? You?
Our hard earned tax dollars at work folks! The insanity that is running our government never ceases to amaze me! Creating armies of insurgents has to be the dumbest idea they have come up with yet. You would think our government would be bright enough to figure out that paid insurgents are like mercenary’s that don’t have a loyalty to anyone. The whole mess is going to blow up in their faces one of these days. I just hope it does before the election!
With a free media, with exposure to ALL the information, with a widened perspective… even the 30% or so Americans that still think “we got to get them tarrists” would come around.
We WERE in the streets enmasse’ here and around the world. The media FALSELY presented and STILL falsely present the true sentiments of the American people. The energy transnationals, megapharms, media empires, that own and control the flow of information want people to think, if they oppose the war they are different than their neighbors.
We may be sheep to some degree… but we’re not a nation of sociopaths. You could field a million protestors tonight and it won’t be more than a blurb, quickly edited, in the local news.
Even people that are avid readers and educated people get artfully honed FASCIST PAP. This has been a quiet coups d etat. The camps are starting to fill and nobody even knows yet.
YOU probably, don’t even know.
It seems that even people who know that the 2004 election was stolen think there’s a limit to how many votes they can steal.
How pathetic are we, that we are reduced to begging people to vote in such numbers that they can’t steal the election, instead of demanding honest voting?
They can and did steal millions of votes-
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2006-07/03parenti.cfm
And for Parenti’s answer to the demonization of Milosevic that even progressives like Poet fall for:
http://www.michaelparenti.org/Milosevic.html
And what evidence do you have that the camps are starting to fill?
Geo Group Inc., formerly Wackenhut Corrections Corporation has the Guantanamo contract as well as handling immigration sweeps on behalf of I.C.E., formerly Immigration and Naturalization Service. Global Solutions is also a big contractor in this business.
They are conducting raids that INCLUDE “suspect” citizens and legal aliens… held under DHS rules which deprive them of all basic rights. No warrants, no attorney, no phone calls, no notification of family, etc.. They are held until cleared, detained or deported. They have promised to deliver the incarceration of 10 Million by 2010.
This is no conspiracy theory. Illegal Immigration is the START BUTTON for the Police State and it HAS ALREADY BEEN PUSHED. Protestors outside just ONE of the facilities in this domestic Gulag Archipelago… get NO national press and when they surface in the local press, they are characterized as anarchists and kooks. The Government visits their employers and pressures them to fire the protestors. They visit their landlords and pressure them to evict the protestors.
This corporation got their start in the mid-1950s contracting for the government to arrest and detain people suspect of “disloyalty” under McCarthyism. The were contracted in Belgium to handle illegal immigrants and had to flee the country to evade prosecution. They were forcing children into the basement of their facility, beating them and raping them.
There are many thousands of people, mostly innocent or guilty of nothing more than illegal immigration, being held IN INDEFINITE limbo all across this country. God only knows what happens to them next.
I know this, however… with absolute certainty. The protesters are being forced to wear Zapatista cowls in order to not lose their homes and jobs. They are portrayed in the press as terrorists and dangerous radicals.
This is what I know. Your ass is next.
Green? you been reading this?
Do you honestly think I’m cracked?
Cranky: There were demontrations at the beggining of the war but are you claiming that there have been others recently? I would like to know. As for the true feelings of the American people, I think the feeling is best described as always ready to go to war. I don,t believe this has changed. The US isn’t the greatest aggressor on earth for nothing. The American people believe in dominating the world, they just don’t like losing in Iraq. No, the people of the US have not suddenly come to their senses, they haven’t changed at all…..yet. Poverty, maybe, will take care of that.
We’ve had consistent and huge demonstrations in the West… a really big one in September before I left Seattle.
It’s small wonder people are dispirited about protesting when the logistics… the permits… the “free speech zones” and draconian restrictions make it very hard. Then, when they show up in the tens of thousands… it doesn’t even make the local news, yet alone national.
In America, ALL the media is “embedded.”
Oh, and if you DARE protest NAFTA, the WTO or illegal detentions…. you’re putting your home and job on the line… they will ID you and hunt you down… tell your boss… whisper in a bureaucrats ear… black ball you
In response to Forextrader and others who commented on his post, there is no need for an outside force to invade the United States and make us suffer, for we are already doing a fine job of destroying ourselves from within.
I am an American Christian mother who has chosen to raise my children in a Muslim country because the faith of these people ensures a culture entrenched in strong family life and taking care of your fellow man. Consequently, I don’t worry about my children being shot by another child in school. My daughter doesn’t need to carry red pepper spray with her if she is going to walk alone in the streets. Drive-by shootings are never heard of. Young men and women are not asked to sacrifice their lives on foreign soil.
The United States is slowly dying from within, and we have only ourselves to blame. We are our greatest enemy.