More Than 4000 American Soldiers Have Died - For This??
John McCain has proposed that the U.S. might be in Iraq for the next 100 years. His projection might be a reflection of how long it will take to bleed the Iraqi oil fields dry, or it could simply be an estimation of how long it will take for the Iraqi Army to assume responsibility for the security of the country. On Tuesday, in the heat of battle, another Iraqi Army unit deserted…
Over the past month, fighting has intensified dramatically in Iraq. Even though the legacy media has mostly ignored the bloodshed in favor of polygamists in Texas or whatever verbal gaffe one of the Dem presidential nominees has made during the course of a news cycle, Iraq has remained largely out of the mainstream consciousness. Do you really think that the average American paid much attention to the testimony last week of Gen. David Petraeus or Ambassador Ryan Cocker? Think again.
But one thing we’ve been hearing over and over again (at least when someone in the administration actually ventures a public comment about Iraq) is that the Iraqi Army continues to improve and assume responsibility for security in various strategic areas in the country. We saw how well that worked out in Basra. Supreme Iraqi Commander Nouri al-Maliki was one mortar shell away from having his ass handed to him by Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. At least 1900 members of the Iraqi Army deserted in Basra and were subsequently fired (speaking as a former military guy, how do you “fire” a soldier, anyway?).
We haven’t been getting much news out of Baghdad’s Sadr City recently, but whatever news has actually been trickling out hasn’t been good. There’s basically a 24X7 lockdown in effect, and it’s been reported that a humanitarian crisis is developing - not that there hasn’t been one since, oh, about 2003. But I digress.
Today, the New York Times published a rather shocking report about an Iraqi Army unit that deserted its post in Sadr City in the middle of a firefight on Tuesday. They just quit, and withdrew. At least, that’s how the story is being portrayed in the legacy media. But what the NYT reported was a bit beyond “Iraqi unit deserted”. It clearly lays out the legacy that George W. Bush and his merry band of incompetents will be leaving to his successor.
“Every house in Sadr City probably has one of their sons in the Mahdi Army,” [Iraqi Army Major Sattar] observed when American soldiers visited his position on Monday. “So it is hard to convince people to believe in the Iraqi Army.”
When he arrived at the Americans’ position on Tuesday, the Iraqi officer reported that many of his soldiers had taken off their uniforms and deserted after other Iraqi Army commanders failed to send reinforcements during a gun battle with militias that he said had lasted several hours…
Maybe Maj. Sattar didn’t have the phone number of the local battalion headquarters? Or couldn’t send out smoke signals? Hmmm. More on communications issues in a bit.
Major Sattar calmly explained that he was leading the remainder of his 80-man company away from the fight [remember, there were already desertions]. As if to underscore the point, a convoy of Iraqi vehicles piled high with furniture was parked in front of the American position…
So, the Iraqi Army went furniture shopping, and then decided to blow out of town rather than guard their assigned territory? My bullshit detector also tells me that the pockets of the soldiers should have been searched for rolls of hard currency.
“You went through a whole battle and are now removing yourself?” Captain Veath asked incredulously. “Are any of your men dead?”
Major Sattar acknowledged that his unit had several wounded but none killed. But he and other Iraqi soldiers insisted that they were poorly equipped to battle the militias. Iraqi forces, they said, were short of ammunition, had only a few armored vehicles and were up against militia fighters they said were equipped and trained by the Iranians…
So, I guess that Major Sattar got up close and personal with some of the militia fighters - close enough to see bills of sale and training records from Iranian bad guys? Something is starting to smell rather robust about this whole incident.
“We are not afraid,” the major responded.
No, they got what they came for - payoffs and dry goods.
He also complained that he had no means to communicate directly with the American troops.
“That is an excuse, and you know it,” [U.S.] Captain Veath shot back. He argued that one of the major’s platoons was situated just 100 yards from some of the American Stryker vehicles and that the two sides had agreed that the Iraqis could send a runner over to the vehicles to ask for help if necessary…
$20 billion American taxpayer dollars spent training and outfitting the Iraqi Army, and the FUCKING RADIOS DON’T WORK? No one has a cell phone?? They have to resort to 490 BC Greco-Persian war era communications??? Bullets and mortar shells flying, and the best they can do from a communications standpoint is “send a runner” the length of a football field (and back) to receive orders and direction???? Oy, my aching wallet.
The Bush administration recently requested another $108 billion appropriation to continue this crap. It’s become crystal clear that the majority of the Iraqi army is in it for the paycheck only. There’s no other reasonable explanation. And as soon as the going gets hot, many of them simply up and quit the battle.
I’m sure that we’ll hear word in the next day or two that Major Sattar has either been summarily fired or executed, and that he and his squad were simply a poorly trained group of rouge elements within the Iraqi Army. In the heat of the battle, though, when you’re out-manned, out-gunned, and out-numbered, a good commander cuts his losses.
Or at least walks away alive with the spoils of war, such as Ikea shelving units, strapped to the top of his command vehicle.
Click here for an extended update.
You’re correct. I didn’t pay any attention to General Betrayus’ testimony. Why? Because I’ve heard enough lies from this administration to last me a life time. The only thing I will accept Is Bush’s impeachment, subsequent fair trial and and imprisonment along with Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzales and the rest. Betrayus is just a tool. He is a particularly large oddly shaped hammer in a situation where we need a one of those octagonal Ikea allen wrenches.
the iraq war has been a wholesale fleecing of the american people from the get go. i have always said that bushco has been doing nothing but embezzling from the american taxpayer - i mean where the hell is all that money going? hardly any is accounted for. they are all criminals and congress should not give one more dime of our money. it’s all a ruse and bush and cronies are laughing all the way to the bank and will move to dubai on january 19th.. they are all psychopaths.
i don’t blame the iraqi soldiers. they have hardly any other way to make a buck.
It’s become crystal clear that the majority of the Iraqi army is in it for the paycheck only.
Um, yeah? Would anyone expect otherwise? Look at how the military was recruited after the career military was disbanded. Look at what their mission is in Iraq. I would expect anyone in it at this point to be in it for the money, for information to pass on to insurgent groups, for access to weapons and uniforms to … pass on to insurgent groups, or because they have nowhere else to go.
The guys who actually believe in something have joined up with one of the militias - the Badr Brigade, the Mahdi army, one of the Sunni Awakening groups or one of the Kurdish militias. The folks who would stay in an army whose only purpose is to keep the puppet government of an occupier in power aren’t the folks you want to depend on when the shelling starts. And any idealists who joined up hoping to bring “Western-style” democracy and “freedom” to Iraq have got to have had their idealism destroyed by now. When the occupiers keep insisting that they’re never leaving, the the folks fighting for freedom aren’t the ones working for the occupiers.
Yet another example of how the idiots in charge of this whole debacle completely do not understand human psychology at all. As if none of them could even stop for 5 minutes and think “what would I do were I in a situation like this?” Morons the lot of them.
richard, you make some good points. but where is the accountability?
bush is protected by the highly-disciplined 40 repubs in the senate — the number that makes it veto -proof — and the unexplainable behavior of joe lieberman — and, of course, the tie-breaking inclinations of cheney.
if, in nov, 2006, the votes in the senate had been slightly different — where the Dems would have a veto-breaking vote - the iraq situation would have changed, and we would not be supporting the debacle that you describe above.
nonetheless, the inept tactics that you describe can be turned around, sort of, to a point where a little more sanity prevails, and, come nov 2008, let’s hope overdue corrective actions will begin
how, though, are we’re going to extract ourselves safely, and make “appropriate” gestures to reconstruct a society — including it infrastructure — that we have virtually destroyed, is — for me at least — a deeper question?
however, to use tom friedman’s phrase,” if you break it you buy it!” (friedman, incidentally, is not a favorite — not a neocon, at the same time, he was a strong supporter of the invasion)
with these ” break it, buy it, fix it” questions, how do we restore the iraqi infrastructure, and more importantly, how do we begin the task of departing from iraq after devastating its social fabric so badly?
but you’re right: is this all 4,000 American causalities — and an estimated 30,000 GIs wounded so fatally that they can’t carry on normal lives — means?
where is the accountability?
yes, yes, I KNOW all this Richard.
But goddammit, the American people have more important things to think about and ABC news et al are keeping the focus where it matters.
I’ll tell you what’s important sir: did Obama’s pastor say a mean thing? Did Hillary Clinton lie about Bosnia? Who is the better bowler? Who is can hold their liquor better?
These are the things that I am concerned about. A costly foreign war without end, media that’s invested in keeping the war going, and the ongoing decay of our economy and security as a result?
Not important.
[/bitter, bitter snark]