In the latest US military action in Tall Afar Iraq, many statistics were spewed out to show success. X number of insurgents killed(as in Vietnam, if they're killed, they're the enemy) and x number arrested.
Ever wonder how they determine who they pick up in the sweeps of all males 15-60 are "insurgents"? The WaPo gives a pretty good idea in this descriptive piece.
TALL AFAR, Iraq, Sept. 12 -- A masked teenager in an Iraqi army uniform walked slowly through a crowd of 400 detainees captured Monday, studying each face and rendering his verdict with a simple hand gesture, like a Roman emperor deciding the fate of gladiators.
A thumb pointed down meant the suspect was not thought to be an insurgent and would be released by U.S. soldiers. A thumb pointed up meant a man would be removed from the concertina wire-encased pen, handcuffed with tape or plastic ties and taken by truck to a military base to be interrogated. .......
By 8 a.m., nearly 400 people were assembled, squatting or seated in the dirt beside the road. Two of the men had bloodied faces and spots of red soaking through their green dishdashas.
"They tried to grab my father, and I said, 'He is old, you don't need to take him,' " said one of the men, whose upper lip and right ear were swollen and bleeding. "They hit us with their fists and their rifles."("they" refers to the Kurdish militia being used in this operation.)
Many of the men's hands were bound so tightly with plastic cuffs that their circulation was cut off, so U.S. soldiers cut the bindings and instead wrapped their hands with thick green tape.
(remember this as you read story after story of groups of men found dead in a pile with their hands bound.) ......
With a U.S. interpreter, he perused the crowd, pausing for less than two seconds to consider each man's fate. He never spoke a word aloud, only whispering occasionally to the interpreter.
After drawing out 52 suspects from the group, he spent longer assessing each of them in depth and providing more detailed information about their activities. He identified a man with a split lip and wearing a purple shirt and filthy white pants as "a beheader," saying he had killed at least 10 people.
"Cuts heads," Capt. Noah Hanners, leader of Blue Platoon in the 3rd ACR's Eagle Troop, wrote in blue marker on the man's forearm.
"You get treated special, buddy. Congratulations," Hanners said. ......
"Your source is not good, these are all innocent men," said a detainee wearing a gray dishdasha, who said he was a student in the city of Mosul, 40 miles to the east. "We are all Sunnis. That is why he chose us. He is Shia," he said, referring to the informant. ......
Before boarding trucks and returning to their base, the Kurdish soldiers lined up behind the detainees and posed for digital pictures. They threw packages of food and bottles of water to a large group of children assembled across the road, many of whose fathers had been detained.
Some children picked up the gifts, but several grabbed them and threw them at the departing army vehicles. One truck quickly stopped and a soldier got out and pointed his pistol at the children, causing them to scatter briefly, before he drove away. .....
"Another day of making friends," Hanners said, shaking his head.
Pull out now. Set a timetable and pull out in six months. Just get out of Iraq. We are not bringing Iraq up to democracy, we are going down. To me this echoes a bit of Vietnam, but more so of the Central American wars sponsored by Reagan/Bush the greater, and several policy making members of the current administration.
There were reports that Negroponte had developed and brought in the Salvador option. This is how they did it, only they exectued the men on the spot while the CIA personnel stood by. Again, referring to the piles of dead men found with their hands bound, I would wager that this is indeed going on when the WAPO reporters aren't invited along.
We're in another dirty war. God help us all.
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