The bad news: we may be training them to become the bad guys.
Eric Schmitt of NYT reports:
The top American operational commander in Iraq has offered a sober assessment of the hurdles facing a new Iraqi government, voicing concerns that sectarian rivalries and incompetence could cripple major ministries and turn newly American-trained Iraqi security forces into militias for hire.
Lt. General John R. Vines, commander of the Iraq theatre of operations, warns that "the development of the Defense and Interior Ministries that sustain Iraqi security forces lags behind the fielding and prowess of more than 220,000 Iraqi soldiers and police officers."
Two and a half years after the fall of Hussein's statue, the top U.S. general in Iraq is concerned that the nearly quarter million Iraqi security forces we're training may turn on us and the fledgling Iraqi government. That's reassuring, I guess, if your objective is to create a never-ending state of conflict.
Looking back at how Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, and the rest of the neo-cabal have run this woebegone war, it's apparent that they couldn't have screwed things up worse if they'd planned it that way.
And it makes one wonder if maybe they did plan it that way.
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From the Irony is Dead department:
The administration is accusing war critics of aiding and abetting the enemy even as General Vines cautions that our own forces may be training the enemy.
Support the troops?
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Continue to be very wary of the administration's happy talk about troop drawdowns. Keep in mind that the neocons' original goal was not a "reduced footprint" in the Middle East. To the contrary, a key component of their vision of the New American Century was to maintain "a substantial American force presence in the Gulf."
The dreams of megalomaniacs die hard, and they seldom just fade away.
From the initial disarming when we went into Iraq, I thought about this: 'wait a minute, we might need those guys' help to secure the new democracy later; or else we'll have to train new forces, and who's to say they won't turn on us (or at least heavily infiltrated)? So WTF?'
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm with you about troop drawdowns. It's all smoke and mirrors from those who need to make political hay.
WTF indeed. If the GOP holds its majority come November, stand by for a draft.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that stops conspiracy theories from being as true as we fear is that in general, people are lazy and incompetent. The bigger a conspiracy has to be to do what is claimed, the less likely it is that it can be carried off.
ReplyDeleteThat said, it has long been my contention that Bin Laden could not have asked for a better plan than what we did in Iraq. The Iranians are probably even more pleased if that's possible. :-( No doubt that means I'm "aiding and abetting" but that doesn't make it any less true!