More Than 4000 American Soldiers Have Died - For This??
Posted: 16 Apr 2008 08:10 PM CDT All Spin Zone
Over the past month, fighting has intensified dramatically in Iraq. Even though the legacy media has mostly ignored the bloodshed in favor of polygamists in Texas or whatever verbal gaffe one of the Dem presidential nominees has made during the course of a news cycle, Iraq has remained largely out of the mainstream consciousness. Do you really think that the average American paid much attention to the testimony last week of Gen. David Petraeus or Ambassador Ryan Cocker? Think again.
But one thing we’ve been hearing over and over again (at least when someone in the administration actually ventures a public comment about Iraq) is that the Iraqi Army continues to improve and assume responsibility for security in various strategic areas in the country. We saw how well that worked out in Basra. Supreme Iraqi Commander Nouri al-Maliki was one mortar shell away from having his ass handed to him by Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. At least 1900 members of the Iraqi Army deserted in Basra and were subsequently fired (speaking as a former military guy, how do you “fire” a soldier, anyway?).
We haven’t been getting much news out of Baghdad’s Sadr City recently, but whatever news has actually been trickling out hasn’t been good. There’s basically a 24X7 lockdown in effect, and it’s been reported that a humanitarian crisis is developing - not that there hasn’t been one since, oh, about 2003. But I digress.
Today, the New York Times published a rather shocking report about an Iraqi Army unit that deserted its post in Sadr City in the middle of a firefight on Tuesday. They just quit, and withdrew. At least, that’s how the story is being portrayed in the legacy media. But what the NYT reported was a bit beyond “Iraqi unit deserted”. It clearly lays out the legacy that George W. Bush and his merry band of incompetents will be leaving to his successor.
“Every house in Sadr City probably has one of their sons in the Mahdi Army,” [Iraqi Army Major Sattar] observed when American soldiers visited his position on Monday. “So it is hard to convince people to believe in the Iraqi Army.”
When he arrived at the Americans’ position on Tuesday, the Iraqi officer reported that many of his soldiers had taken off their uniforms and deserted after other Iraqi Army commanders failed to send reinforcements during a gun battle with militias that he said had lasted several hours…
Maybe Maj. Sattar didn’t have the phone number of the local battalion headquarters? Or couldn’t send out smoke signals? Hmmm. More on communications issues in a bit.
Major Sattar calmly explained that he was leading the remainder of his 80-man company away from the fight [remember, there were already desertions]. As if to underscore the point, a convoy of Iraqi vehicles piled high with furniture was parked in front of the American position…
So, the Iraqi Army went furniture shopping, and then decided to blow out of town rather than guard their assigned territory? My bullshit detector also tells me that the pockets of the soldiers should have been searched for rolls of hard currency.
“You went through a whole battle and are now removing yourself?” Captain Veath asked incredulously. “Are any of your men dead?”
Major Sattar acknowledged that his unit had several wounded but none killed. But he and other Iraqi soldiers insisted that they were poorly equipped to battle the militias. Iraqi forces, they said, were short of ammunition, had only a few armored vehicles and were up against militia fighters they said were equipped and trained by the Iranians…
So, I guess that Major Sattar got up close and personal with some of the militia fighters - close enough to see bills of sale and training records from Iranian bad guys? Something is starting to smell rather robust about this whole incident.
“We are not afraid,” the major responded.
No, they got what they came for - payoffs and dry goods.
He also complained that he had no means to communicate directly with the American troops.
“That is an excuse, and you know it,” [U.S.] Captain Veath shot back. He argued that one of the major’s platoons was situated just 100 yards from some of the American Stryker vehicles and that the two sides had agreed that the Iraqis could send a runner over to the vehicles to ask for help if necessary…
$20 billion American taxpayer dollars spent training and outfitting the Iraqi Army, and the FUCKING RADIOS DON’T WORK? No one has a cell phone?? They have to resort to 490 BC Greco-Persian war era communications??? Bullets and mortar shells flying, and the best they can do from a communications standpoint is “send a runner” the length of a football field (and back) to receive orders and direction???? Oy, my aching wallet.
The Bush administration recently requested another $108 billion appropriation to continue this crap. It’s become crystal clear that the majority of the Iraqi army is in it for the paycheck only. There’s no other reasonable explanation. And as soon as the going gets hot, many of them simply up and quit the battle.
I’m sure that we’ll hear word in the next day or two that Major Sattar has either been summarily fired or executed, and that he and his squad were simply a poorly trained group of rouge elements within the Iraqi Army. In the heat of the battle, though, when you’re out-manned, out-gunned, and out-numbered, a good commander cuts his losses.
Or at least walks away alive with the spoils of war, such as Ikea shelving units, strapped to the top of his command vehicle.
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