Special Iraqi Squads Formed

News is strating to get out on special squads that the US military is forming in Iraq. They are recruiting former Ba'athists to place into "hit-squads" to go after those who are attacking US forces and Iraqi's percieved as collaborating with the US (most frequent targets seem to be police and politicians). [10/27/03 Freedberg, GovExec, Iraqi security forces risky, but vital part of reconstruction]. Back in April 03, James Conachy at WSWS had a piece about this as well -

Gov Exec points to five different areas where Iraqi's are being recruited: police, facilities protection, border guards, the new army, and the "Civil Defense Corps." It is the CDC that is raising concerns among even some military leaders. Below is the description if the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps:

* Iraqi Civil Defense Corps. With the new army relegated to external defense, and the civilian police often overwhelmed, the U.S. is raising a kind of paramilitary superpolice, much like the French Gendarmerie Mobile or the Texas Rangers in America's Wild West of the 1880s. The Iraqi Civil Defense Corps is already 4,000 strong and is scheduled to triple to 15,000 in January. The corps, in addition, has an internal security mandate that could make it the most politically potent force in the new Iraq. Yet this new force is rife with ambivalence as well. In two of the few interviews with corps trainees to date (by the Chicago Tribune and by Fox News), one Iraqi recruit confessed that he "loves Saddam Hussein," while another said that U.S. bombing during the war had killed his girlfriend. Both men admitted bluntly that they had enlisted, first and foremost, for the money.

On the news this morning I heard this group referred to as the Iraqi SS. This group is (apparently) largely composed of former Hussein loyalists under the hope that they will have better networks for ferreting out those who are engaging in the escalating attacks). It is assuredly a desperate move as the CDC forces are a kind of "shock troop" operating relatively independently. The newscaster this morning (Portland KXL - not a liberal station) sadi that some at the Pentagon saw this as "putting a fox in with the chickens."

Obviously, there are concerns about the ongoing attacks, and certainly we are all concerned about the deats and injury of both US forces and Iraqis, but this approach seems to me to place Iraqi's at significant risk. It also insinuates back into power a group that has utilized their own form of terror to exact compliance in the past. My guess is that this is not going to be seen as a trust-building measure on the part of Iraqis. In fact, (to me) it comes across as a sign of desperation and lack of concern for the people of Iraq.

It essentially says that the US does not have 1) the skills to protect ourselves nor the people of Iraq; 2) we are more concerned with protection of US forces and installations than we are with any long term change in Iraq; 3) that the US really doesn't care what kind of tactics are used for that protection - even terrorizing the population; 4) that the US is willing to utilize both the tactics and the personnel of those who were purportedly "overthrown" for their cruelty.

The fact that even GovExec claims that this group could become the "most politically potent force in the new Iraq" speaks volumes about the United States' actual concerns, and interests, in Iraq. THose concerns and interests seem to place the freedom of the Iraqi people, the creation of a "democratic" state, and the long term health and safety of the population well down the list -- in my opinion.

Posted by rowan at November 5, 2003 10:45 AM | TrackBack | [eMail this article!] |