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McChrystal's Rise: More Secrets, Less Daylight
All along there were two US wars in Iraq. There was the public war, in which the Pentagon tried to manipulate the mainstream media into being a "message amplifier," while some intrepid reporters and bloggers fought back. Then there was the secret war carried out by the Special Operations forces, whose existence was denied even by the Pentagon.
Now the secret operations threaten to completely compromise what remains of the public war in Afghanistan and Pakistan with the ascension of Gen. Stanley McChrystal to top commander from his classified role in running Special Ops in Iraq for five years.When questioned by the media or senators presiding at his confirmation hearing in a few weeks, Gen. McChrystal may have a simple answer to anything troubling: sorry, that is classified.
The mystique of secrecy may come to shroud all public inquiry about Afghanistan and Pakistan. There are questions to be answered, however.
One is framed on page 380 of Bob Woodward's book The War Within, in which the author describes a top-secret operation in 2006 that targeted and killed insurgents with such effectiveness that it gave "orgasms" to Derek Harvey, a top aide to Gen. David Petraeus and longtime tracker of Iraqi dissidents. The secret program was led by McChrystal, then a lieutenant commander, using signals intercepts, informants and other tools of what McChrystal calls "collaborative warfare" through Special Access Programs (SAPS) and Special Compartmented Information (SCI.) McChrystal, according to the New York Times, conducted and commanded most of his secret missions at night. These missions were consistent with the proposals of Petraeus's top counterinsurgency adviser at the time, David Kilcullen, to revive the discredited Phoenix Program used in South Vietnam.
This expanding secret war is crucial to understand for three reasons. First, according to Woodward's claim, it was "more important than the surge" in reducing insurgent violence in Iraq. Second, the Special Ops units served as judge, jury and executioner in hundreds of extrajudicial killings. The targeted victims were from broad categories such as "the Sunni insurgency" and "renegade Shiite militias" or other "extremists." Third, and most important, the operation was kept secret from the American public, media and perhaps even the US Congress.
Woodward himself agreed to self-censorship, choosing to accept the Pentagon's argument that to disclose any details "might lead to unraveling of state secrets that have been so beneficial in Iraq."
And there the matter has been left, without a single follow-up story, investigation or Congressional inquiry.
Three years later, Iraq is far from being a pacified US ally, raising the question of whether the secret killing campaign was partly a desperate effort to get through the 2007-2008 political cycle in the United States.
The prospect of contending with secret counterinsurgency programs is not a secret but a well-known challenge to those on the receiving end in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The real point is that Special Operations allows the Pentagon to pull the wool over the eyes of the American public, media and Congress. Nothing requires an explanation, including the actual causes of American deaths.
If that seems a harsh conclusion, consider the one public "blot" we already know about concerning Gen. McChrystal's war record. An investigation by the Pentagon itself found him guilty of fabricating false information in the drama surrounding 2004 death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman, an Arizona Cardinals football player who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. In 2007, McChrystal was held accountable for a Pentagon cover story that Tillman died from "devastating enemy fire," when in fact he was killed by accidental rounds from his own unit.
What kind of military leader would falsify the details of a soldier's death in order to create a patriotic legend for public consumption?
His rise can only mean an intensified campaign of secret--and dirty--warfare in the remote villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The public, the media and the Congress are entitled to know whether and how Gen. McChrystal will become transparent, accessible and accountable as he steps out of the shadows, or whether he will be committing America's future to the night.
- Posted in
25 Comments so far
Show AllI'm impressed with Hayden's ability to write this article without mentioning Obama -- you know, the guy who actually promoted McChrystal? -- once.
Hayden's Democratic-water-carrying "Progressives [sic] for Obama" strikes again. Maybe fellow PFO'ers Barbara Ehrenreich and Bill Fletcher can write similar articles deflecting attention from the current occupant of the White House.
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Eric Patton
Cincinnati, OH
ebpatton@yahoo.com
I know a guy who saw Obama going for his monthly teflon coating last month.
Before Ronald Reagan was buried, a large sample of his DNA was taken by The Strangelove Institute, duplicated billions of times, then combined with a Dow Chemical Company product called Nolfet. This is what MoFobama has sprayed on his body each month. It has not been approved by the FDA. No research as to its long term effects has been undertaken. Also, The Strangelove Institute is the science arm of the Heritage Foundation. MoFobama may next be seen in a wheelchair, wearing a black glove on one hand and speaking German.
Suppose Hayden wrote an apologetic essay and no one responded? Do you think he would just go away?
We can only hope Hayden goes away.
You know what? Obama inherited one hell of a mess; actually messes, between the wars ,and the the economy. To me he seems to have a tendency to be putting the people who created the messes into the unenviable position of having to fix them.
While there is a side of me that would like to see a quick fix with new people, if the quick fix route failed, that would be hung around Obama's neck. Now, it is the people who made the mess, and their policy decisions, who can fail, and then maybe a new course can be taken afterwards. Maybe, by appointing McChrysal, he is giving Congress a chance to grill him and his policies. Maybe Obama is organizing a long term strategy, and as painful as it is to watch, especially with the war, the next year may see a turning.
I refuse to give up hope. This administration is doing real, tangible good on many fronts. Perfect, no, but jeeeze, all you complainers, can you just step back and ease up on all your nitpicky digs at every person who supported Obama as if that taints their credibility? There are real issues here, it will be a long struggle against powerful entrenched forces to bring positive change.
Joe in Gainesville
Utter non-sense. Despite the escalation of war in Afghanistan, and the continued occupation of Iraq, along with covering up and suppressing Bush era crimes and those Dems who were briefed on torture, el al, are as culpable as Bush. On the environmental front Obama keeps engaging in a fantasy called "clean coal" who RFK recently noted that the Obama Administration is an "indentured servant" to the coal industry. There is also Obama's continued support FISA, and a boondoggle known as TARP support; and to add insult to injury, then naming the same morons responsible for our financial collapse, as our saviors to clean up the mess they created in the first place, i.e., Guiethner and Summers. Then comes information that both, but particularly Summers is collecting Hedge Funds to the tune of millions on the side which is an obvious conflict of interest, representing the foul odor of corruption. Obama is further conducting covert activities in Pakistan claiming innocent lives of non combatants. The latest insult - after promising transparancy - is that Obama is engaged in his latest obfuscation refusing to release torture photos and memos of the Bush admin on the subject. When are you dreamers going to wake up?
ChrisDeGetmon
coyoteteacher@gmail.com
Sioux Rose
ELOHIM: Thank you for laying out the facts. If Obama stumbled in an area or two we might say it was due to inexperience or indicative of his need to learn from the job; but when ALL his appointments with perhaps one exception here or there reflect a continuation of the horrific policies of The Bush Junta, then something is rotten and it's no longer in Denmark. Anyone who can apologize for that would be like the spouse who comes home and finds his entire family murdered, the perpetrator in his home with blood on his hands, and still says, "I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Who could have done such a thing?" C'mon.
Um, Obama is PART of the "powerful entrenched forces"-- he was officially entrenched last November, in case it escaped your notice.
That's the main picky dig I've got at the moment.
"I refuse to give up hope" is the crux of your message. Good for you! Far be it from me to kick someone else's tires of hope, especially when they're becoming balder by the day.
But I hope you're carrying four spares, just in case.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Joe in Gainesville: You display in almost clinical form a syndrome seldom seen among commenters on CD, but very commonly indeed among those who publish the articles to which responses are being given. I call this the subjunctivitis disease, and its epidemiology with reference to the Obama presidency was explored on my weblog: http://sunstateactivist.org/ssablog/?p=240
The essence of this "disease" is the tendency of Obama supporters to avoid disappointment with his performance by their persistence of "hope" that things will improve, and to couch this residual hope in the form of subjunctive words like possibly, might, maybe, if, perhaps, hopefully,should, etc.: all words used by a writer or speaker in describing conditions that he or she knows to be contrary to tha actual facts of the situation but which correspond to their own wishes. I compare it to those who prophesy the end of the world and, when that end fails to come as predicted, re-adjust their hopes into some future event of the kind that failed to happen in the time frame they expected. I'm afraid that the American public is very far gone in succumbing to this disease, and that when the next Presidential election rolls around in 12, they will troop to the polls as they did in 04 to re-elect yet another failed President (Bush, then Obama) on the basis of projecting their "hopes" into a second administration for that failed leader.
Jerry in Gainesville
Joe:
I remember hearing folks use this justification as they held their nose and voted a second term of Bush. "he made it, let him fix it".
And so, if I were to continue your thought that those who made this mess should be put in places of high command to fix it, then I think it would be fair to say, McCain should have been voted into office. Isn't that reasonable? After all, he was called Bush's 3rd Term. More of the same?
Yet, the primary reason people voted Barack Obama was one very loaded word, CHANGE. Surely there is change in some domestic areas when compared to Bush, but when compared to the Clinton Era, Obama's moves look less inspired and more like milquetoast.
All hail, Milquetoast, XLIV.
.
(XLIV is not to be confused with the NFL Superbowl XLIV. Even though the game will be held at LANDSHARK stadium, the current Administration will not receive any royalties)
Chuk-it
Straussianoplis, USA
Joe, there's not much benefit for the people in supporting the O'Bamba regime. The elites are far more powerful than the people, despite the people's far greater numbers. So the elites easily tolerate O'Bamba's slight left shift, which hardly benefits the people. We need a much greater left shift to see any difference but really, we need to actually make it happen. We need to have our own hand on the crow bar of persuasion for the elites to understand who's boss. They are reptilian, not too insightful. They need a demonstration. We on the far left suggest everyone shift our individual exchange/association away from the elites and toward our local communities. This hits their reptilian nerve centers like nothing else. But most importantly, this gives the people a stake in a sorely needed and hugely beneficial alternative.
Back in ancient Sparta, to be accepted into adulthood a Spartan male had to prove himself by going on secret night-time raids to kill obstreperous helots.
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Ah, Americans. The only people the US military can still defeat.
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As for the Pat Tillman saga, it was to my Congressman that Tillman's father said during Washington hearings "Get away from me".
"Back in ancient Sparta, to be accepted into adulthood a Spartan male had to prove himself by going on secret night-time raids to kill obstreperous helots."
It is hilariously ironic - but especially in US culture - devoid of any rites-of-passage whatsoever - save for the interminable domestication of the US male who marries a woman who fills the same roll his mother did, to speak about a rite of passage as if he underwent one. Tell me hero, what war did you serve in?
The antispetic value of life held by the eunuchs of culture, nothing more than a talking point. When they are not propogating their eco la la, they chime in as bodyguards for cultural guru types...
If volunteering to serve in the Empire's war is the only rite of passage for men, and if challenging the fallacious grooming used to haze cadets into a warrior-servant class of "men" implies those who do not submit are eunuchs, castrated to serve their mother, then by all means, let the American male die completely. Start with those who wave their cock and balls around as testimony to their superiority.
Sioux Rose
LOCUST: That must explain why obstreperous helots are so seldom heard of, and not long ago placed on the "Endangered Species" list.
One is framed on page 380 of Bob Woodward's book The War Within, in which the author describes a top-secret operation in 2006 that targeted and killed insurgents with such effectiveness that it gave "orgasms" to Derek Harvey, a top aide to Gen. David Petraeus and longtime tracker of Iraqi dissidents.
That's bleeping priceless! If I refer to these assholes and criminals as "Swinging Dicks", I'm right on the mark.
Bad to be over there, but worse to be over there with a target on your back saying "shoot me, I do this for a living." If we are going to war - lets go to war. Kill them at night, day, when ever. War Sucks, but spending billions and getting no bang for it is even worse.
Targeting the bad guys amid not so friendly "civilians" is not easy. But at the end of the day, this works. We know how to do it - and do it well.
While we sit on our asses and ponder this - tens of thousands of kids are memorizing the Koran, and being taught how to hate...and kill Us. Until we figure out how to stop this endless waste of human lives, we need to have warriors like McChrystal cleaning up the mistakes caused by generations of bad US policy.
Jihad is a farce paid for by our own petro dollars. In places where women can't even spell abortion, the kids they are forced to produce are forced to die to keep the price of gas up - and our kids go there to kill them as a career choice. So we are in this loop - they and us, killing and getting killed so bigoil can maintain that fog of war they need to keep the same old same old.
Targeting the bad guys amid not so friendly "civilians" is not easy. But at the end of the day, this works. We know how to do it - and do it well.
______________________________________________________________
I hope you're being facetious.
"The desperation of our military efforts is showing around the edges of the carnage and tragedy. This past week has brought three official U.S. denials that we have done what eyewitnesses and/or other evidence indicates we did: a) used white phosphorous as a weapon against Afghan civilians; b) killed nearly 150 Afghan villagers in a sustained bombardment; c) killed a 12-year-old Iraqi boy as he stood innocently by the side of the road selling fruit juice."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/14-4
· Yr Obd't Servant
Whiskey Pete used as a weapon... much like Fallujah. Do you think Obama supporters remember those events? I think the term Marines used was "shake and bake"....
and what about MOABs? Will Obama feel compelled to use these
near and around civilian structures too?
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1115-03.htm
Sioux Rose
BEAT-ON: Suppose it was a Muslim plot to engineer the 911 tragedy. 3000 persons die. In your mind does this grant YOU legitimacy invading a nation that had NOTHING to do with the 911 event, that by some counts has led to a million deaths? In sheer numbers, does your Christian faith blind you to the idea that Jesus would support such actions? Do you think the death of all these civilians is balanced against the death of 3000 over here? If so, that's not even a good count on the basis of "Eye for an Eye" (which is distinctly Old Testament) Justice.
You have in your mind this idea that those studying the Koran are likely to become dangerous and take up arms against you, your religion, and the American way. If you studied an IOTA of history (I recommend Howard Zinn's "A People's History of The United States") you would have to face the sobering fact that the world's # 1 danger and aggressor is our own nation. It also happens, by sheer coincidence, to produce the most weapons and forms of mass destruction; and it has a history of having used some of these. Nor are the recent photos of someone else's precious children burned by white phosphorus especially comforting to this idea that war is heroism, or that Jesus or Allah or Moses or Buddha would be proud of you baboons who wear the uniform and go about senselessly killing. Heroism, it is not; and if you think you're providing a service, you're thoroughly deluded, not to mention misinformed. Think of Watada. Some military personnel rise over the Cuckoo's Nest and call it what it is. Now THAT is courage AND heroism.
It would be crass and vulgar and sophomoric to suggest that "beat-on" change his/her nym to "beat-off".
I'm a better person than that, so I'm just gonna suck it up and keep my damn mouth shut!
· Yr Obd't Servant
Dont blame the poor kids on either end of this BS deal. You sorry SOBs sit on your asses while they get killed - kids - who cares where they come from? its teens doing the killing so big oil gets a bigger bottom line.
Joe
I understand what you say, but unfortunately our President looks to be weak and inconsistent and other than spending a lot of money to no point, I have no idea what you could be referring to that he is "doing good". And blaming Bush at this point has worn thin. After his stimulas, Omnibus and budget, this is all his.
actually, it's "kids" swallowing the mic propaganda pile of horse shit. or in some instances, re: the boy scout article, they come on board, with gun in hand, because it gets them "excited." and it's almost certain, a bit wet.
that, beaton, is what the military looks for in, and promises to, its recruits. get with the program.