US Training of Death Squads in Iraq? - War Is A Crime .org

Democratic position and that of the administration, observing, “It's taken them all this time tofigure out what we've been doing for a long time.”Dealing with the InsurgencyThere are dozens of armed groups in Iraq battling U.S. occupation forces and the U.S.-backedgovernment. This resistance includes supporters of Saddam Hussein, well-armed remnants of hisarmed forces, other Baathists, independent nationalists, various Shiite wings, tribal-basedgroupings, and several Sunni Arab offshoots. The al-Qaida-inspired jihadists and the foreignfighters upon whom the Bush administration focuses represent a minority of the insurgency.Opposition is growing and, despite many differences ideologically and tactically, the variousfactions have demonstrated an increasing ability to coordinate their operations.Beyond the many similarities between the war in Iraq and the one in Vietnam years ago, one keydifference is in the nature of the opposition. Although some anti-Vietnam War activists naivelydownplayed the autocratic tendencies of the communist-led National Liberation Front (NLF),these rebels and the North Vietnamese government eventually brought relative peace andstability to the country. Despite current repression and misguided economic policies, the SouthVietnamese have arguably suffered less in a reunified country under the communists than duringthe U.S.-led war under the corrupt and brutal Thieu regime in Saigon. Belying dire warningsfrom Washington prior to the war's end, the NLF/North Vietnamese victory has not harmed thenational security of the United States, and other than its misadventure in Cambodia to rootout the genocidal Khmer Rouge and a brief border war with China Vietnam has coexistedrelatively well with its neighbors and is now a full member of the Association of Southeast AsianNations (ASEAN).The same cannot be said of the armed opposition to the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad.Unlike in Vietnam, the Iraqi resistance is not unified. As a result, toppling the current leaderswill not likely bring peace but rather continued violence and disorder. The insurgents alsoinclude some decidedly nasty elements that are genuinely fascistic in orientation. In the powerstruggle that would follow a hypothetical overthrow of Iraq's central government, it is quitepossible that the new rulers would include militant jihadists, Saddam's wing of the Ba'ath party,or other elements far worse than those currently in power or likely to be elected next month.There is also a real risk of the instability spilling over into adjacent countries.There are many scary scenarios that could result from the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.The country could plunge into full-scale civil war, it might split into three parts (accompanied byethnic cleansing), fundamentalist Islamic rule may emerge, Iranian extremists could exert undueinfluence, or this war-torn nation could become a training and logistical base for internationalterrorism. All of these possibilities should be taken seriously.Unfortunately, these scenarios may even more likely occur if U.S. forces remain than if theywithdraw. Bush's war in Iraq is creating insurgents, including terrorists, faster than the Pentagoncan kill them. The U.S. and British military presence is exacerbating ethnic and sectariandivisions, not lessening them. The overwhelming U.S. domination of the Baghdad government is147