How do the troops feel about this?
BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 6 — Iraq's new government said on Tuesday that it would release 2,500 detainees, nearly 10 percent of those held in Iraqi and American detention centers, and that it would adopt a "national reconciliation" plan to reintegrate former members of Saddam Hussein's ruling Baath Party into society. ....
Lieutenant Colonel Curry said that the terms of the detainees' release included a pledge to renounce violence "and to be good citizens of Iraq." He added, "All of these detainees selected for release have been found to be relatively low threats."
So, you're in Iraq for your second or third tour, and each time you come back the tone from the Iraqis has grown increasingly hostile. You've watched friends get maimed and killed and now, suddenly, the guys you captured are being released? How do you think that's going to go down with the troops?
Would this make you more likely or less likely to apprehend subjects alive?
This is really bad.
(Notice there's no affirmative quote in this article from anybody in the US military going on the record to say they support this or that it's a good idea. Or the AP version. Or Reuters.)
Also: This smacks of desperate deal making by Al Maliki.
posted by mikevotes at
9:32 PM
4 Comments:
More to the point, how are they going to feel when the coalition finally does a moonlight flit - leaves the Iraqis to sort it?
It is hard to see any other senario.
Oh, and yes, I did notice the lack of subtelty. I'm still working on it...
By
Cartledge, at 11:16 PM
A lot of people that have been captured are (relatively) innocent. I have no problem releasing them. Remember that the majorits prisoners at Abu grabass prison are innocent (at least that was the deal about a year ago)?
By
Anonymous, at 1:12 AM
Romunov, you're very right. Tons of people have been rounded up for nothing.
BUT, how is the release process not going to be more or less the same thing in reverse? I'm sure the majoriity released probably are in the innocent category, but I would also think that a fair number of them aren't.
Cartledge, In order for the US to pull out, Bush will either have to admit all the stay the course rhetoric was wrong, or will have to try to justify that Iraq is somehow stable and free, and I don't see either of those happening soon. (Or, I guess he could claim that the Iraqi security forces are ready, but that one will be provably wrong.)
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 7:53 AM
Also, I recognize that the "more likely or less likely to apprehend subjects alive?" is pretty dicey. I'm not trying to imply that all US troops are going to go devildog, but, for anybody that was close to the line already, this will not help.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 7:53 AM
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