[WCUSP] US arms Sunni dissidents in risky bid to contain al-Qaida fighters in Iraq

[KATHARLOW at aol.com]

This story, which was also carried on the front page of the NY  Times, makes 
it clear that the US is desperately trying to find a way out of the  quagmire 
of Iraq and the open divisions in the US military over arming the  Sunnis is 
evidence of that. Meanwhile, on  National Public Radio's All  Things Considered 
this afternoon, former ABC Nightline anchor Ted  Koppel reported that a 
military advisor to Hillary Clinton told him that should  she be elected, she has 
no plans to withdraw the troops from Iraq either in her  first term or her 
second should she be re-elected. Then Koppel quite candidly  said that, in truth, 
that will be the policy of any Democrat who would be  elected, except they 
won't be saying that on the campaign  trail.

_http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2100698,00.html_ 
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2100698,00.html) 
US arms Sunni dissidents in risky bid to contain al-Qaida fighters in  Iraq


· Guns and  equipment already handed over
· Insurgents promise not to attack  Americans 

Ewen  MacAskill in Washington
Tuesday June 12, 2007
_The  Guardian_ (http://www.guardian.co.uk/)  

The US military has embarked on a new and risky  strategy in Iraq by arming 
Sunni insurgents in the hope that they will tackle  the extremist al-Qaida in 
Iraq.  
The US high command this month gave permission to its officers on the ground  
to negotiate arms deals with local leaders. Arms, ammunition, body armour and 
 other equipment, as well as cash, pick-up trucks and fuel, have already been 
 handed over in return for promises to turn on al-Qaida and not attack US  
troops. 
The US military  in Baghdad is trying to portray the move as arming 
disenchanted Sunnis who are  rising up in their neighbourhoods against their former 
allies, al-Qaida and its  foreign fighters. But the reality on the ground is more 
complex, with little  sign that the US will be able to control the weapons 
once they are handed over.  The danger is that the insurgents could use these 
weapons against American  troops or in the civil conflict against Shia Muslims. 
Similar efforts by the US  in other wars have backfired, the most spectacular 
being the arming of  guerrillas against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. 
Major General Rick Lynch, a senior US commander in Iraq, insisted no weapons  
would be given to insurgents who had attacked Americans. "We have not crossed 
 that line," he said. 
The US said it would use fingerprinting, retinal scans and other tests to  
establish whether insurgents had been involved in fighting against American  
troops. 
But a reliable witness to a meeting this month between US forces and  
insurgents in the Sunni stronghold of Amadiya, in Baghdad, expressed scepticism  
about the strategy. Far from being a popular uprising against al-Qaida, only a  
handful of armed men turned up. The US handed over ammunition to them. The  
witness said that US soldiers watching the handover were dismissive, seeing it  as 
a stunt. 
The strategy was discussed in Baghdad this month between the new US commander 
 in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and his field commanders. They decided to 
leave  it to each commander to decide locally. 
The Pentagon insisted the latest strategy was not recognition that president  
George Bush's "surge" policy had failed. All of the extra 30,000 US troops  
ordered by Mr Bush in January to Baghdad and Anbar province, one of the centres 
 of the violence, had only just been fully deployed and it was too early to 
judge  it. 
Initial successes of the surge in pacifying parts of Baghdad have now been  
reversed, with the death toll among US troops and Iraqi civilians last month  
among the highest since the 2003 invasion. 
The US military first tested the strategy of arming its former enemies in  
Anbar province. Anbar is now relatively quiet, but that could be because the US  
has flooded the province with US troops. 
The Anbar model is being extended to Amariya, as well as Diyala and  
Salahuddin provinces. 
The US insists that the Sunni disenchantment with al-Qaida is because of the  
group's suicide bombings that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of 
Iraqi  civilians. 
The arming of the Sunni insurgents reflects US unhappiness with the slow  
progress of the Iraqi army, which it suspects of being too close to the Shia  
militias, and with the police, which is even more riddled with sectarianism. At  
a press conference, Gen Lynch said he was concerned about corruption within  
Iraq's police force and by interference from the national government in 
security  issues, particularly in the release of suspected insurgents held by Iraqi  
security forces. 
Part of the problem is that the US needs its security efforts to be  
accompanied by political progress but the Iraqi coalition government has so far  been 
unable to reach agreement on the biggest divisive issues. In a further  upset, 
Iraq's Shia-dominated parliament voted yesterday to remove the speaker,  
Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni, over alleged scandals. His bloc, the Sunni Arab  
Iraqi Accordance Front, was asked to submit an alternative. 
The manoeuvring came on another day of bloodshed across the country, which  
left 36 Iraqis and three US soldiers dead. In a separate attack, a suicide  
bomber destroyed a bridge over the Diyala river, north of Baghdad. 
Changing tactics 
1999: Operation Desert Crossing 
A series of war games conducted by  the US in 1999 by General Anthony Zinni, 
who concluded that a force of 400,000  troops would be needed to invade and 
pacify Iraq. The US defence secretary,  Donald Rumsfeld, instead plans for 
130,000 US troops and 45,000 from Britain and  elsewhere. 
2003: Operation Iraqi Freedom 
Codename for the US invasion.  Britain called it Operation Telic. In May, 
President George Bush, right,  declares hostilities at end, with a banner behind 
him saying "Mission  Accomplished". Paul Bremer, the US head of the 
provisional government, disbands  the Iraqi army, sending tens of thousands of trained 
and armed men into  unemployment and potentially into the insurgency. The US 
denies there is a  resistance. Saddam Hussein is captured on December 13, 2003 
on a farm near  Tikrit in Operation Red Dawn. 
2004: The US battles Shia militia in Najaf and mounts a full-scale  assault 
on Falluja to root out Sunni insurgents and take revenge for the  gruesome 
deaths of US contractors. 
2005: Paul Wolfowitz announces that 15,000 US troops whose tours of  duty had 
been extended in order to provide election security would be pulled out  of 
Iraq by the spring. There is a temporary reduction in violence. 
2006: Mr Bush points to the success of a US commander, Colonel HR  McMaster, 
in Tal Afar, near the Syrian border, as "the outlines of the Iraq  we've been 
fighting for". Col McMaster cut off Tal Afar, divided it into small  
neighbourhoods and established permanent posts in them instead of defeating  insurgents 
and then leaving. In October the US military announces that Operation  
Together Forward has failed to stop violence in Baghdad. The Iraq Study Group,  made 
up of former US politicians and officials, proposes a troop reduction. 
2007: Mr Bush ignores the Iraq Study Group in favour of a  30,000-strong 
"surge" in US troops to pacify Baghdad and Anbar province. Tony  Blair announces 
that following the success of Operation Sinbad in the British  sector, the UK 
will reduce its military presence. Mr Bush appoints  Lieutenant-General Douglas 
Lute to coordinate Iraq and Afghanistan. The surge,  after an initial 
reduction of violence in Baghdad, has in the last two months  had little impact, with 
the death toll last month one of the highest since the  invasion. The US opts 
for arming its former enemies, Sunni insurgents, to try to  split them from 
the more extremist al-Qaida in Iraq.






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