13 charts – that’s what Thomas E. Hicks in "FIASCO" said helped make Iraq a clusterfuck in the first place. Army Lt. Gen David McKiernan said, "It’s quite frustrating...but in lieu of an order, or plan, you get a set of Power Point slides...Nobody wants to plan against PowerPoint slides." That’s what happens when Yuppies become officers? Friggin’ slides? How about some strategy, some tactics, an exit strategy, maybe? A map, some Arabic lessons. It’s a WAR, not a Halliburton meeting. Then again...
From "Director's Cut", By Katie Halper, AlterNet: "Rick Rowley, a journalist and independent director of Uncovering the Truth Behind the Anbar Success Story, presents a very different picture of the ‘Anbar Awakening’."
Rowley: "There are so many lies in Petraeus' report that it's hard to focus on just one. When Bush was in Iraq ,he posed for photographs with Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, the leader of the ‘Anbar Awakening’, an alliance of Sunni tribes who vow to back the United States and fight against al Qaeda. General Petraeus testified to Congress that ‘a year ago, Anbar province "was assessed 'lost' politically ... Today, it is a model of what happens when local leaders and citizens decide to oppose al Qaeda and reject its Taliban-like ideology.’" Until the sheikh was assassinated. 169,000 troops and they can’t protect the one guy who’s trying to help them? Half the Iraqi government has been shot, while thousands of Blackwater mercenaries who are supposed to be bodyguards are too busy out shooting civilians. And they need those Blackwater crazies—they’re the only ones with enough bullets. (There’s a bullet shortage...Yeah, I know.)
Have any of these clowns ever done anything right?! If you or I were this bad at work, we would have been fired four years ago. But Bush doesn’t fire anyone. So I guess he’s got to go back to Iraq now for five minutes and give out a few hundred "Presidential Medals Of Freedom"...
Rowley says the Sunni "freedom fighters" are not only insurgents who had been killing Americans, but war criminals who have committed sectarian cleansing. And they’re on our side. They must be very comfortable with our CIA guys—so much to talk about.
Rowley's report includes video footage of a military commander handing a Sunni leader a big fat roll of cash. He talks about the role of bribery and coercion in building alliances that serve "short-term goals". "We knew that one of the major stories the Army was going to use to justify keeping troops there was the supposed success in Anbar. The first investigation we did was into the Anbar reconciliation program. (Murdered sheikh) Abu Risha told us some incredible lies during the interview. Three times he said he was the leader of all the Arab tribes of Iraq -- both Shia and Sunni. He said there was 100 percent security in Ramadi, that he was head of all of the tribes in Iraq. His assassination has blown a hole in the American story about security in Anbar.
"The supposed ‘freedom fighters’, the ‘counter-insurgents’, were Iraqi al Qaeda...Many of the tribes that the U.S. is working with are war criminals who are directly responsible for ethnic cleansing and who are using American support to prepare for sectarian civil war. The U.S. is now funding all sides..." Well, Bush "doubled down", now he’s "hedging his bets". "Give ‘em all guns, let ‘em sort it out. It’s not OUR war...oh, wait a minute...it is."
Rowley: "Malaki's head of negotiations with Sunni groups told us...Americans are working with...some of the country's worst war criminals...the story that Petraeus and Bush are saying is fantastic -- a Lawrence of Arabia figure named Abu Risha rose out of the desert and behind him the noble tribes of Anbar rose up and they kicked out al Qaeda." They threatened them and bought them off. Well, it’s been said, "The enemy of your enemy is your friend, and if he’s not, give him a shitload of money not to kill you."
Rowley: "Petraeus came in with Negroponte with the so-called ‘Salvador Option’ for Iraq, arming death squads to kill insurgents...in 2004 he incorporated all of the Shia militias into the Iraqi security forces and basically created Shia death squads and secret torture prisons..." Hey, those death squads don’t just fund themselves. That’s what America is for!
According to Rowley, no media in the US has picked up this story (of course), just "Democracy Now" with Amy Goodman. God bless Amy Goodman! How is SHE still on the air?! Although with my new cable, I can’t ever seem to find the show anymore...
Rowley says the Iraqis say the surge has made things much worse and that the US must leave immediately. Like I keep saying, these people act like it’s their country or something! Hey, we broke it, and we bought it! It’s ours! What Colin Powell called "The Pottery Barn Law", even though Pottery Barn released a statement saying if you break something there, you DON’T have to pay for it. So Powell was even wrong about that.
Larry Beinhart, author of "Fog Facts: Searching For Truth In The Land Of Spin",quotes courtesy of AlterNet: "The occupation set out to rebuild the Iraqi Army and Police. So they could stand up and we could stand down...The man who was given the job was that rising star, Gen. David Petraeus...He failed.
"The Iraqi Army cannot resist the insurgency. The Iraqi police cannot keep order. Indeed, it's far worse than that. Both forces are infiltrated. Some divisions are actually filled with militia members, insurgents and gangsters, dressed up in uniforms. With access to intelligence, arms and equipment. They have engaged in murder, torture and intimidation...How can we expect the man who failed at doing just part of the job -- training those forces -- to succeed now that he has the whole job?...Petraeus’ counterinsurgency manual recommends a force ratio of between 20 and 25 troops per 1,000 in the population. We’re 506,000 short of the more ideal ratio." We have troops in 120 countries, but not enough for where Bush wants his endless war? The US military--you break it, you buy it...
Beinhart asks, why we haven’t seen this on CNN or in the New York Times? How come nobody in Congress asked Petraeus about the difference between his own theory and reality?
Where to begin? First, there’s no news on the news, especially Crap Not News and the shameful New York Times. Secondly, nobody had the guts to stand up to Petraeus except Moveon.org, so Congress wastes valuable time condemning their ad for a pun, as if it was treason. What are they going to do, put a website in the electric chair? Bush actually gave a shout-out to MoveOn. How stupid is he? Their contribution immediately went up 900%. Thanks, George. How about attacking DailyKos, please? They could use the money.
From Petraeus’ manual, which wasn’t used in Iraq until about three years too late:
Requirements for counterinsurgency:
"1.Security from insurgent intimidation and coercion, as well as from nonpolitical violence and crime. (Nope!)
- Provision for basic economic needs. (Hell no!)
- Provision of essential services, such as water, electricity, sanitation, and medical care. (Are you friggin’ kidding me?!)
- Sustainment of key social and cultural institutions. (They have social and cultural institutions? Nope!)
- Other aspects that contribute to a society's basic quality of life... (LOL)
The counterinsurgent should --
- Understand the environment in which the war is being fought. (No.)
- Isolate the insurgents from their cause and their base. (Nada.)
- Secure the population under the rule of law. (Nix.)
- Generate intelligence from the population to drive actions against the insurgents. (No no no.)
- Apply all elements of national power in unison to support the legitimacy of the host nation's government. (Big fat no.)
- Be prepared for a long commitment, measured in years, if not decades..." No more calls—we have a winner! Bush is all over that one—have a 60-year war!
Beinhart : "For years we have spoken of "the insurgents" as if they're generic figures in a video game...they insurge because they're insurgents. It would do well to call them the Fakarthy Insurgents. As in ‘Who the fakarthy?’"
"...I don't doubt that the general is as brilliant as he is billed to be. Right now, I'll bet he and his team are pulling all-nighters...in a few years, or decades, they'll probably get there, too. Counterinsurgency FM 3-24 should...be required (reading) for the senators and their staffs who voted 81-0 to put Petraeus in charge of the Iraq operation, and more particularly, those senators who questioned him so ineptly when he delivered his September report...a long commitment, measured in years if not decades..."
Beinhart days we may be there until 2017, or 2027, as Bush suggested with his Korea comparison (Tony Snow too). And he says that requires a draft. Well, a draft might finally get people out in the streets in big numbers. Poor Cindy Sheehan had to quit for awhile. I couldn’t blame her. You know, from looking at the reaction to the Republican’s immigration bill, I couldn’t help thinking, maybe illegal immigrants do do the jobs Americans won’t do—like protest. Cindy’s back with her gentle message of peace—I know because I saw her being arrested again the other day. Must have been wearing a peace sign. She’s lucky she wasn’t tasered.
I remember the Vietnam draft – I was in it. 1974. I would have had to go and fight. But I didn’t go to Vietnam. Luckily, I went to the physical with peanut butter around my ass. The doctor said, "Exactly what is THIS, Mr. Ferrari?" I grabbed some, licked it, and said, "Tastes like peanut butter, sir!" "GET HIM OUT OF HERE! GET THIS NUT OUT!"
Of course, that wouldn’t work with today’s Army. They’re so desperate, the guy would just say, "Peanut butter? Good, we’ve got a guy with bread up his butt and one with jelly up his ass—we’re going to make you your own squad!"
Next: PETREAUS (2)
(All my diaries are factual information culled from real sources. Like I say onstage, "It’s all true, except for the later funny part." For this series, I am indebted as always to "Countdown With Keith Olbermann". Other sources include: Frank Rich in the New York Times, Thomas E. Rick’s "FIASCO", The New York Review Of Books, specifically the Ian Buruma review of "World War IV" by Norman Podheretz, George Packer’s article in the New Yorker, Larry Beinhart, and Katie Halper’s interview with Rick Rowley, both from AlteNret. I wish to thank all these sources and I highly recommend them all. You might want to check out my CD, "The Best Of His NSA Wiretaps", available at dougferrari.com. End of ad.)
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