The Myth of the Surge

Hoping to turn enemies into allies, U.S. forces are arming Iraqis who fought with the insurgents. But it's already starting to backfire. A report from the front lines of the new Iraq

NIR ROSEN
Rolling Stone

"....All told, the U.S. is now backing more than 600,000 Iraqi men in the security sector — more than half the number Saddam had at the height of his power. With the ISVs in place, the Americans are now arming both sides in the civil war. "Iraqi solutions for Iraqi problems," as U.S. strategists like to say. David Kilcullen, the counterinsurgency adviser to Gen. Petraeus, calls it "balancing competing armed interest groups.".....

....But such political maneuvers don't really matter in Iraq. Here, street politics trump any illusory laws passed in the safety of the Green Zone. As the Awakening gains power, Al Qaeda lies dormant throughout Baghdad, the Mahdi Army and other Shiite forces prepare for the next battle, and political assassinations and suicide bombings are an almost daily occurrence. The violence, Arkan says, is getting worse again.

"The situation won't get better," he says softly. An officer of the Iraqi National Police, a man charged with bringing peace to his country, he has been reduced to hiding in his van, unable to speak openly in the very neighborhood he patrols. Thanks to the surge, both the Shiites and the Sunnis now have weapons and legitimacy. And what can come of that, Arkan asks, except more fighting?....."

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My Comment:

The American strategy is the adaptation of Kissinger's strategy during the Iran-Iraq war to Iraq itself. Kissinger stated that the US goal was to have Iran and Iraq slaughter each other. He said that anytime either side was near collapse, the US would step in and prop it up so that it would stay in the fight.

Precisely the same strategy is at work within Iraq: have the Sunnis and Shiites slaughter each other. When the Sunnis were about to be overwhelmed by the US-supported Shiite militias and death squads, the US moved in to capitalize on the Sunni predicament and to arm the Sunnis. Love for the Sunnis? Of course not; the US wants the Sunnis back on their feet to fight the Shiites (whom the US also arms and trains.)

How can the Iraqis be so stupid not to see through this? After being used to fight Iran for years and losing about a million soldiers (both sides), you would think that they would have learned by now! Unbelievable!

Who said that the US was losing? Are you kidding!