LOL: Five Months Later London Times Catches Up With Me
In April, I ran a couple of stories about what was at the time the largest cash payment we had yet made to an Al Anbar tribe as part of an alliance deal. I’d seen things like this go down myself on a smaller scale, and the story about the tribe in question in my posts was told to me by an unimpeachable military source in Al Anbar. It’s not simple bribery, as the Sheiks and their people are often in serious need of financial aid, especially for weapons and ammunition. But motivation and a displays of good will and good faith are undeniably part of why we do it.
The Jaburs are arguably the most powerful tribe in the region, and we had used the Saudis to help with the negotiations and actually finance the hefty payment. Not to shock the Times or anyone else any further, but smaller versions of such payments had been going on throughout the country for some time. Al Anbar Sheiks, in fact, have been working with us on and off for three solid years now; the Al Anbar awakening didn’t happen overnight, no matter how much anyone would like to say that one day the Sheiks just got fed up with Al Qaeda and quickly dovetailed their forces and efforts with ours. Bridges and relationships had been built ( and sometimes burned or literally bombed ) for a long time leading up to it, which is part of the reason why things were able to kick into high gear so quickly this Spring. Not only would we pay Sheiks directly for fighting and such, but we would also finance a variety of public works and business projects. All manner and size of deals were made, primarily with the goal of kicking off a long-term relationship. Sometimes it would entail just buying someone something or providing medical care. And it would get tricky. One day in Ramadi, a young sheik drove up in his Beemer and shot a couple of Iraqis working on a coalition project on his turf - not for political reasons, but because he hadn’t been cut in on the deal. No matter what Chuck Schumer says, the troops in Al Anbar fought a perfect holding action while simultaneously buidling the bridges that the Coalition and Sunni allies ultimately crossed to defeat the enemy.
So anyway, the typically and tragically behind the Iraq News 8 ball MSM, this time in the form of the Times of London, ran a story about their latest discovery: we give financial aid to Sunni tribes who fight alongside us. They report this as if its a scoop, and use the following headline:
US bribe insurgents to fight Al-Qaeda
AMERICAN forces are paying Sunni insurgents hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to switch sides and help them to defeat Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
The tactic has boosted the efforts of American forces to restore some order to war-torn provinces around Baghdad in the run-up to a report by General David Petraeus, the US commander, to Congress tomorrow.
Petraeus will tell Congress that there has been great progress at a local level in Iraq following a surge in the number of troops this year, but little sign of political reconciliation.
In a letter to US troops, the general wrote that “local Iraqi leaders are coming forward, opposing extremists and establishing provisional units of neighbourhood security volunteers”.
The Sunday Times has witnessed at first hand the enormous sums of cash changing hands. One sheikh in a town south of Baghdad was given $38,000 (£19,000) and promised a further $189,000 over three months to drive Al-Qaeda fighters from a nearby camp.
Petraeus is to ask Congress tomorrow for more time to build political reconciliation. He is under pressure to bring home a brigade of about 4,000 troops, but has told President Bush that it will not be possible before January at the earliest.
Administration officials say Petraeus hopes to report to Congress again in March, buying six more months for the surge to work before troop rotations make it impossible to keep 160,000 US forces in Iraq without overstretch.
Bush is to lay out his vision for the future of Iraq in an address to the nation this week.
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Jeez, it was a sign of shrewdness and concern to minimize loss of human life on both sides when we bribed many Afghan warlords away from the Taliban **6 YEARS AGO.** Now it’s a sign of…venality? Desperation? Dirty Republican Halliburtonite Mammon-Worshipping Exported to Noble Savages?
Or is it just the latest “Whatever is tried under Bush is Horrible”?
September 8th, 2007 at 11:05 pmSeems as though, since I was a kid, I’ve read a zillion times about bribes/baksheesh/ whatever, in these nether regions of the world. A guy told me once what a deep way and fact of life it is. He said it’s almost to the point of not only “buying the orange”, you have to bribe the seller to sell it to you.
September 9th, 2007 at 2:03 amExtra, extra, read all about it in the Londonistan Times.
September 9th, 2007 at 2:12 amAnd why is it bad to give reconstruction monies to friends? It is far better to do this than give the money to the central government and hive them steal it away.
September 9th, 2007 at 5:28 amAs to Chucky Schumer…or as I call him Schmucky Schumer….rest assured that anything that comes out of his mouth is just more angry self-hate. He’s schmuck, so what can you expect from such losers?
As to the Londinistan Times….LOL. As usual lots of leftist spin propaganda. And a day late and a dollar short to boot… I say old chap…that’s not cricket…These chaps really do want to win…
Love making fun of British tabloid bullshit, don’t you?
September 9th, 2007 at 6:01 amThe Brits are finally pulling out!!!
The Brian De Palma film now going strong “Redacted”…winning awards….should get lots of media coverage and will help end the war
September 9th, 2007 at 8:33 amNow let me see if I’ve got this straight. The same Brits who like to yammer on about how Americans “don’t understand the culture over there” and other such crap are now upset because we are abiding by a cultural tradition as old as the tribes themselves?
That’s just rich. European hypocrisy knows no bounds. I’m still waiting for them to protest the multiple European invasions of the small, muslim land of Chechnya. Not holdin’ my breath, mind you.
September 9th, 2007 at 2:39 pmJay:
Depalma going to end the war? LOL. Smoke alot of dope do you? Try this headline on for size moonbat:
September 9th, 2007 at 5:11 pmhttp://www.politico.com/news/stories/0907/5723.html
Dan my man, u a trip!
September 9th, 2007 at 8:10 pm