Tag: ISIS
Monday News: Baghdadi Dead, but ISIS “Emboldened” by Trump’s Policies; Defending...
Sunday News: ISIS Leader Baghdadi Reportedly Killed; “Blowback from Trump appearance...
Saturday News: Thanks to Trump, “ISIS Rears Its Head”; Marie Yovanovitch...
Tuesday News: 58% of Americans Support Opening Impeachment Inquiry; “The GOP’s...
Saturday News: “Why end of Mueller’s Russia probe could signal start...
Sunday News: “The most bizarre political moments of 2018”; “You Can’t...
Saturday News: Trump’s Bat****-Crazy Response to Egypt Terror Attack; Trump vs....
Friday News: Trump’s Legal Problems Get Worse; Guns – Not “Heated...
Video: In a Harley T-Shirt, Corey Stewart Claims Liberals Are “Just...
Iraq Trap: Remember, It Wasn’t the “Surge”

Two important forces converged at the moment George Bush decided to throw more troops into the fray against the growing Iraqi insurgency. Neither were military. Neither were affirmations of support. It was the story of choosing the lesser evil as perceived by the Iraqi people.
American military forces committed atrocities that alienated the most important factors in any insurgency: the hearts and minds of the populace. It is a convenient fact that the American people were never allowed to grasp the full impact of Abu Ghraib and other moral lapses committed by our troops and their leadership. That failed leadership extends, by the way, all the way to Washington D.C. and is not limited to the principal resident of the White House. But as my Australian officer classmate, Mal Reardon, liked to aver, "Winners are grinners."
If you love America, you should read this even though it won't be pleasant. But for you super-patriots who love a place that doesn't exist, beware of cognitive dissonance.
In the fall of 2003 the rules of engagement for the invasion of Iraq included sweeping suspected regime sympathizers into custody. The term sympathizer was applied broadly and interpreted by at least one unit to include reporters for Arab news media. As told to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in Iraq After The Invasion, one reporter from al Jazeera was taken into custody when he responded to an explosion of a mini-bus in Diyala province north of Baghdad. He had been detained before and thought it would be the same questions and same result: release after an hour or two. This time was different; he was taken to a prison that had been infamous as a site of torture and execution under the Hussein regime: Abu Ghraib. We had taken part of the facility and used it as a military prison.