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

y shifting their targets, concentrating attacks more on Iraqi security forces and they haveintensified economic sabotage, crippling the electrical and petroleum infrastructure.U.S. Marines units have taken the militia strategy to a new level: by creating their own. In arecent sweep through Al Anbar province, the heartland of the insurgency, The 7th MarinesRegiment brought with the Iraqi Freedom Guard, a 61-man unit set up in January and paid $400a month each, according to a Reuters report. During the same operation, Marines of the 23rdRegiment were accompanied by 20 members of a special forces unit called the FreedomFighters. The Christian Science Monitor described them as Shiites from the southern city ofBasra, with "little love between them and the Sunni Arab citizens of Anbar."Despite being squeezed, no one is predicting an end to the insurgency. One U.S. general recentlynoted that it takes on average nine years to defeat an insurgency. Even if the rebellion iscontained to "manageable" levels for the Pentagon, meaning a low rate of combat deaths, thatdoes not mean the resistance will end. U.S. forces long ago lost the battle for hearts and minds.75