An examination of Iraqi resistance, terrorism, insurgency and organized crime

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Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) publishes a series of policy briefs on various topics related to national security, civil liberties and human rights, veterans issues and energy policy.

Policy Brief No. 2, Discussion Draft

June 2005


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Executive Summary
The Iraqi insurgency consists of a complex mix of organizations and groups with different methods of operation, motives, and personnel, defying easy classification. Key elements in this mix include Sunni and Iraqi nationalists, former regime elements fighting due to loss of power and prestige, foreign (and local) jihadists who see Iraq as the key battleground between the United States and al-Qaeda, and sectarian militias allied to specific political or religious parties.

The continuing growth of the insurgency is driven by a number of factors, including anger and distrust of U.S. forces, economic devastation and unemployment, extremely slow physical reconstruction, and the inability of either coalition forces or the transitional government to protect the public from increasing levels of violent crime. In particular, the Iraqi public justifiably believes that the emphasis of U.S. forces is more on capturing and killing insurgents than on protecting the public. Consequently, despite having captured or killed some 15,000 insurgents in the last year, the number of insurgents has grown rather than diminished.

The public discussion of the insurgency fails to reflect key realities. Without substantial changes in policy by the United States and the Iraqi Transition Government, there remains a substantial risk of failure in Iraq. Such a failure carries a number of associated risks: a return to some form of dictatorship; long-term sectarian conflict in that country, the creation of a solely religious based government (either Sunni or Shi’a); the separation of the Kurdish north into an independent nation, inviting war with Turkey; or long-term escalation of U.S. forces.

These risks can be avoided, but significant policy changes must be made by the United States and the transition government of Iraq in order to do so. This report makes a number of recommendations both to the United States and Iraq to help avoid the most serious of those risks and increase the likelihood of ending the war in Iraq.



Contents

Introduction

Examining the Insurgency

Major Armed Groups in Iraq

Other Armed Groups in Iraq

Factors Driving the Insurgency

Conclusions
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This article that simple tells it like it is .... cuts right to the bone... a direct hit of what we have right here in our own back yards concerning terrorism and our bogus wars in the Middle East.



http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=6185

June 2, 2005

Washington Is the Source of Terror
by Paul Craig Roberts

The U.S. government gave the slave trade a boost by offering money for al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Afghan and Pakistani warlords simply rounded up people who looked Arab or foreign and sold them to the Americans as captured fighters. The "fighters" apparently included relief workers, refugees, and Arab businessmen. The tribunals looking into the classification of Guantanamo prisoners as "enemy combatants" have uncovered numerous examples of hapless victims of a naive U.S. government too flush with money.

The Bush administration, of course, denies that it bought its detainees, as it denies everything. However, on May 31, 2005, Michelle Faul of the Associated Press reported that in March 2002, leaflets and broadcasts from helicopters in Afghanistan enticed Afghans to "Hand over the Arabs and feed your families for a lifetime." One leaflet said: "You can receive millions of dollars. This is enough to take care of your family, your village, your tribe for the rest of your life, pay for livestock and doctors and school books and housing for all your people."

Najeeb al-Nauimi, a former Qatar justice minister, leads a group of lawyers representing 100 detainees who were sold to the naive Americans. He says a consortium of wealthy Arabs are buying back fellow citizens kidnapped by Pakistani gangs before they can be sold to the Americans.

More is going on here than merely unintended consequences of a harebrained policy. The Bush administration has proven itself to be utterly irresponsible in the use of power. And it keeps demanding more power, including the suspension of our civil liberties in order to better fight "terrorism."

Aside from 9/11, an event of several years ago, the only terrorism the U.S. has experienced is the terrorism Bush created by invading Iraq. Why are we worried about Osama bin Laden when the moronic Bush administration is so adept at creating terrorism?

Notice the pattern. Bush creates terrorism and then suspends our civil liberties in the name of his war on terror.

The real terror Americans experience comes from their own government.

Don't expect Bush, who admits no mistake, to make restitution for the criminal actions of his Department of Justice (sic). The remedy is a civil suit by all the partners and employees of Arthur Andersen against the U.S. government for damages. I think $1 trillion is a good number. It is a figure demanded by justice. And it will serve the cause of peace by bankrupting the warmongering Bush administration and applying the brake to Bush's wars of empire.