The Salvador Option In Iraq

Fantasy ...

Interestingly, all of the exaggerations seem to be on one side. It isn't as though there simply have been a series of random errors on both sides of issues. On the contrary, the steady stream of errors all seem to be of a nature to inflame the situation and to give heart to the terrorists and to discourage those who hope for success in Iraq.

And then I notice today that there's been a public opinion poll reporting that the readers of these exaggerations believe Iraq is in a civil war -- a majority do, which I suppose is little wonder that the reports we've seen have had that effect on the American people.

Donald Rumsfeld

... meets reality.

BAGHDAD, March 8 -- Gunmen wearing what appeared to be the uniforms of Iraqi Interior Ministry commandos stormed a private security company in the capital Wednesday afternoon and kidnapped as many as 50 employees, an official of the ministry said. In an atmosphere of spiraling lawlessness, at least 47 people across the country were killed between Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

Washington Post

The fact is the Bush administration helped unleash this madness with what is known as the the Salvador option.

the Pentagon is intensively debating an option that dates back to a still-secret strategy in the Reagan administration’s battle against the leftist guerrilla insurgency in El Salvador in the early 1980s. Then, faced with a losing war against Salvadoran rebels, the U.S. government funded or supported "nationalist" forces that allegedly included so-called death squads directed to hunt down and kill rebel leaders and sympathizers. Eventually the insurgency was quelled, and many U.S. conservatives consider the policy to have been a success—despite the deaths of innocent civilians and the subsequent Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal. (Among the current administration officials who dealt with Central America back then is John Negroponte

The problem is these death squads do not have a usual military chain-of-command. They do not answer to anyone. The BBC has found a death squard link to the Iraqi Interior Ministry police force.

"We have found one of the death squads. They are part of the police force," US Maj Gen Joseph Peterson said.

Sunnis have long accused Iraqi forces of operating death squads - but the claims have never been substantiated.

Rumsfeld has changed course and has been warning the Shiites about the escalating violence. He is faced with the same problem as his torture policies. He used brutality and never thought about the consequences.