In recent months the world has been hearing more and more about a sharp increase of vendetta style torture and killing by the current Iraqi government against those leaders of Sunni tribes who were partners with the US during the infamous surge of 2007 and 2008, namely the Sons of Iraq aka, the Awakening Councils. Prior to the official launching of President Bush’s surge in early 2007, a deal was secretly worked out between the US military, headed by General Patraeus, and the Awakening Councils which were comprised of many small Sunni tribes. The plan promised these tribes would be handsomely paid if they drastically reduced their violence overall and stopped targeting US troops. In effect, this is nothing more than a modern version of “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” In large part because of this, Bush’s surge was hailed as a military victory of immense proportions.
This wasn’t the first time the US military used lots of money to influence major leaders in Iraq to stop attacking American forces. Before the war even started US dollars were being lavishly thrown at key elements in the Iraqi military to do the very same thing. On Saturday, May 24, 2003, the Independent news media out of the UK published an article entitled, “US army chief says Iraqi troops took bribes to surrender.”
The article describes how these Senior Iraqi military officers “of key Iraqi cities were bribed not to fight by American special forces.” It then went on to say, “General Tommy Franks, the US army commander for the war, said these Iraqi officers had acknowledged their loyalties were no longer with the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, but with their American paymasters. As a result, many officers chose not to defend their positions as American and British forces pushed north from Kuwait. ‘I had letters from Iraqi generals saying: 'I now work for you', General Franks said.”[1]
This tactic worked to perfection. During the invasion portion of the war, Coalition forces encountered very little if any hostility in town after town. One can only guess at the number of Coalition and Iraqi lives this plan saved. Within a month American and allied troops had reached Baghdad. Who can forget the infamous video of a lone American tank touring the empty streets of the capital, on April 9, 2003, and finding no resistance, thus signaling the actual end to hostilities?
At that point of the war, many people around the world had concluded that the end was near and the US would be able to demonstrate to the rest of the world how a modern war is fought and won. Retired General Jay Garner arrived in Baghdad on April 21, 2003, to take the war victory to an even higher level and restore peace and tranquility across the nation. Unfortunately, one of his first phone calls upon arrival was from Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld who basically told General Garner that his mission had been terminated and his services were no longer needed.
His crime?? He refused to follow President Bush’s 101-page Plan for Iraq after the war. Garner later told independent journalist Greg Palast, "My preference was to put the Iraqis in charge as soon as we can and do it in some form of elections … I don't think [Iraqis] need to go by the U.S. plan, I think that what we need to do is set an Iraqi government that represents the freely elected will of the people." He added, "It's their country ... their oil." He wanted to set up elections within 90 days. [2]
But that’s not part of the Bush plan. His plan instead, proposed a detailed schedule for selling off "all [Iraq's] state assets" -- and in Iraq, that's just about everything -- "especially," said The Plan, "the oil and supporting industries." Especially the oil. [3]
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