Posting from: Missoula, MT
Listening to: Gomez (Live Performance in Austin at SXSW), courtesy of KEXP’s Live Performance Podcast
As the electrons were drying on that last post, I was reading some new and disappointing albeit not surprising developments.
Despite Obama’s Vow, Combat Brigades Will Stay in Iraq
GARETH PORTER: Well, the evidence of this plan to continue to keep combat brigades in Iraq past the August 31st deadline is very clear from looking into the military planning that has been done with regard to the brigade combat teams, the basic combat organization of the US Army in Iraq for the past six years. So I basically began to talk to some of the people who’ve been close to the military planning, specifically in the US Army, over the past few months. And there’s no secret about this, in fact.
What’s happening is that the basic combat organization in Iraq, the brigade combat team, is going to be slightly revamped by adding a few dozen, perhaps more than that, officers who will be doing the advising and assistance directly with the Iraqi military and police, perhaps some other institutions, as well—it’s not clear—but they will be added on top of the existing brigade combat team, rather than having any fundamental change in the structure of those organizations in Iraq. So, what we have is the same combat potential, same combat organization, which will remain on the ground in Iraq.
Now, there will be some drawdown. There’s no doubt about that. But the promise that President Obama made on February 27th that all combat brigades would be withdrawn from Iraq, that simply is not true. It’s not going to happen.
JUAN GONZALEZ: In other words, we’re not dealing with a situation that most people associate with non-combat troops, like engineers or construction units that are involved in some kind of infrastructure work. These are actually combat units, just renamed.
GARETH PORTER: Well, that’s exactly right. I mean, it’s not even that there is going to be military advisers who will be out in the field, you know, with the Iraqi units, which I think everyone understood would be the case. When they decided to call these now—they’re renaming the brigade combat teams the “advisory and assistance brigades.” So, I mean, that’s the—it’s the sleight of hand administratively that is being used now to cover the fact that essentially nothing has changed except the addition of, as I say, a few—a relative handful of advisers who will be added to the structures that already exist. But it’s not just people out in the field advising. It’s going to be the same infantry units. The same infantry companies that exist today in Iraq will still be there when the United States is supposedly bringing its combat troops or its combat brigades home.
Gee, where have we seen this kind of Orwellian bullshit doubleplusgood rhetorical fertility supplement before? Maybe George W. Bush and his “enemy combatants” who he decided were not subject to the Geneva Conventions? Maybe Bill Clinton who wanted us to believe he was smart enough to be president, but not smart enough to know what “is” means or what “sexual relations” are?
This is simply insulting to the intelligence of American citizens.
And not only are we not really leaving Iraq anytime soon, Obama has also announced that there will be a troop surge in Afghanistan.
Remarks by the President on a New Strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan
I’ve already ordered the deployment of 17,000 troops that had been requested by General McKiernan for many months. These soldiers and Marines will take the fight to the Taliban in the south and the east, and give us a greater capacity to partner with Afghan security forces and to go after insurgents along the border. This push will also help provide security in advance of the important presidential elections in Afghanistan in August.
At the same time, we will shift the emphasis of our mission to training and increasing the size of Afghan security forces, so that they can eventually take the lead in securing their country. That’s how we will prepare Afghans to take responsibility for their security, and how we will ultimately be able to bring our own troops home.
For three years, our commanders have been clear about the resources they need for training. And those resources have been denied because of the war in Iraq. Now, that will change. The additional troops that we deployed have already increased our training capacity. And later this spring we will deploy approximately 4,000 U.S. troops to train Afghan security forces.
So another 4000 on top of the extra 17000 that were already authorized. And it’s not just government troops who will be surging.
Contractors surge to Afghanistan
The military buildup in Afghanistan is stoking a surge of private security contractors despite a string of deadly shootings in Iraq in recent years that has called into question the government’s ability to manage the guns for hire.
In recent online postings, the military has asked private security companies to protect traveling convoys and guard U.S. bases in troubled southern provinces such as Helmand and Kandahar. Also, if truckers hired to transport fuel for the military want protection, they can hire their own armed guards, the military says.
The Bush administration expanded the use of such companies with the onset of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because it could save the military time and money.
However, the practice lost much of its appeal with Congress after September 2007, when five guards with what was then called Blackwater Worldwide (the company recently changed its name to Xe) opened fire in a crowded Baghdad square and killed 17 Iraqis.
Those killings followed a 2006 incident in which a drunken Blackwater employee fatally shot an Iraqi politician’s bodyguard.
Now, as President Obama plans to send more U.S. personnel to Afghanistan to boost security and diplomatic efforts, more contractors are preparing to deploy, too. Still, questions remain as to how these private forces are managed, when they can use deadly force and what happens if they break the rules.
Flying Spaghetti Monster help us all. May Afghanistan, especially, be touched by His Noodly Appendage.
