Posted on 08/22/2007 10:09:52 AM PDT by jedward
JURF AS-SAKHR, Iraq (Reuters) - Under a tree by a battlefield road in Iraq's "Triangle of Death," Lieutenant- Colonel Robert Balcavage meets his new recruits.
The men are Iraqi Sunni Arabs who are about to join the U.S. military's payroll as a local militia. They want guns.
"I am not giving out guns and ammo," the U.S. commander says. The men listen carefully as the interpreter translates.
"I've been shot at up here enough times to know that there's plenty of guns and ammo. Me personally. Some of you guys have probably taken some pretty good shots at me."
Slowly but deliberately, U.S. forces are enlisting groups of armed men -- many probably former insurgents -- and paying cash, a strategy they say has dramatically reduced violence in some of Iraq's most dangerous areas in just weeks.
It is a rare piece of good news in four years of war, and successes like this are likely to play a prominent part when U.S. commander General David Petraeus makes an eagerly anticipated report to congress in mid-September.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“It is a rare piece of good news in four years of war”
Nice to see.
A word of caution. History has shown that men who can be bought often don’t stay bought.
So funny, I just posted this as a link to another thread. Hope it doesn’t come back to hunt us.
Nothing new, here.
Did this in Italy, Germany, and Japan, too.
Difference was, however, that those nations were completely and totally crushed, having experienced total war with the only undamaged industrial power in the world.
I understand. This article drives at the heart of some of the difficulties all of us conservatives have with differing opinions on how to achieve the same end, which is naturally...victory of some kind.
History has shown that men who can be bought often don’t stay bought.
Great way to put it. Consider Hamas and the Fatah. Fought a few months ago, the US and Israel show support to Abbas and the Fatah. Abbas swore he would have nothing to do with Hamas so the checks were sent to him. Next thing we find out is he is in talks with Hamas to work with his party.
When will we ever learn?
Naw...no sweat. It’s a good thing to talk about. I may not agree with the means or the policies of various aspects of the war, but that doesn’t take away from my support of the troops or the conservative cause.
“Arab allegiance goes to the highest bidder.”
That’s been proven true several times over.
doesn’t take away from my support of the troops
I want the best for our troops as well.
“When will we ever learn?”
We won’t ever change the way we operate, I don’t think so anyway. One problem I’ve seen people pound their head over is doing exactly what’s discussed in the article, but then wanting to hide from the fact. That’s immidieately crawling into a real defensive position right off the bat. I say stand up and say, ‘your damn right we paid some folks, and when the dust settled, we achieved our objectives...next question’ lol
Yeah, I know. I’ve seen others get beat down for having issues with policy, so I always like to throw that in to the “lurkers” to see :)
I say stand up and say, ‘your damn right we paid some folks,
Right, and if all else fails, we know where they live and can bomb the heck out of them.
P.S. to post 13...funny thing is I realize that long term it’s not effective, but in this crazy world of politics we all throw ourselves into (lol), there’s a large degree of communications and marketing involved.
lol...very true :)
Iraq: Baathists 'disown al-Qaeda'(To open "Dialogue" With Iraq Government!)
Thanks for pinging this...I don’t have any ping lists, so I just posted it and figured someone might see it.
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