Surge: US troops prepare for George Bush's last stand

[NNN0LHI]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2152463.ece

<snip>To do this the US and Iraqi government forces will have to win back these areas from the militias. In particular they will have to take on the Shia fighters, many of them government backed, who have been accused of operating death squads.

Ironically, these death squads are the direct by-product of US policy. At the beginning of 2004, with no end to the Sunni insurgency in sight, the Pentagon was reported to have decided to train Shia and Kurdish fighters to carry out "irregular missions". The policy, exposed in the US media, was called the "Salvador Option" after the US-backed counter-insurgency in Latin America more than 20 years ago, which led to 70,000 deaths and countless violations of human rights. Some of the most persistent allegations of abuse have been made against the Wolf Brigade. Their main US adviser until April last year was James Steele, who states in his autobiography that he commanded the US military group in El Salvador during the height of the guerrilla war. The complaints against Iraqi special forces continue.

While in Iraq, I interviewed Ahmed Sadoun, who was arrested in Mosul and held for seven months before being released without charge. He showed the marks on his body of beatings and burning. Mr Sadoun, 38, did not know which paramilitary group had seized him. But they were accompanied by American soldiers, and the Wolf Brigade was widely involved in suppressing disturbances in Mosul at the time.

As for the Mehdi army, the Americans fought a short and fierce battle with Mr Sadr's militia in Najaf two years ago. At the time, however, the Sunni insurgents were still the bigger threat, and it was deemed convenient to let Shia clerics organise a truce. Since then the Mehdi army has been left relatively untroubled by both the US and UK forces. When it briefly took over Amarah in a recent action and blew up a number of police stations, a British force was sent up from Basra, but did not intervene, leaving the Iraqi army to deal with the situation.

[applegrove]

1. Like kids in a sandbox. Only they are messing with nations.

[itsmesgd]

2. after this "last push"..

and we still have not won the "hearts and minds" are we going to just nuke the place as though we were shaking the global Etch a Sketch?

I wish that they would get it that there are no "do-overs"

[endarkenment]

3. Which reminds me.

So after Dumbass's stupid surge fails, as it inevitably will, then what? What excuse will they come up with in three-six months to justify more war, more killing, more chaos?

And when will the Democratic leadership in congress finally stand up and say no more money for this bad war?

[magellan]

4. BushCo let the Shia militias arm and now complain of Iranian interference

What the fuck did they expect? Probably exactly this. It gives Bush** another excuse to attack Iran.

[Norquist Nemesis]

5. Maybe he's trying a Custer's last stand to get the people behind him

Custer decided to ignore his advisors also and 'move foward'. So, it wouldn't surprise me at all for Bush to use our troops in that way. Not one bit. The only difference is that Bush isn't the one on the battlefield getting shot at (nor are his children and relatives).

"Although this was the biggest defeat of the U. S. Army by the Plains Indians, it was also the beginning of the end for the Indians

With the massacre occurring right before the nation's centennial birthday, the mood changed against the Indian in Washington. Now the effort was to crush the Indians as if to personally seek revenge for the death of the soldiers at the Battle of the Little Big Horn"

http://www.linecamp.com/museums/americanwest/western_places/little_big_horn_custers_last_stand/little_big_horn_custers_last_stand.html