New and Improved Mukhabarat

ORANGE COUNTY WEEKLY reports on the US's decision to recruit, and the CIA's decision to finance, many of the former officers in Saddam Hussein's former secret police.

Nick Schou likens this decision to the notorious Operation Phoenix program in Vietnam, which did nothing constructive in regards to the war in Asia, although it certainly upped the body count and terrorized the Vietnamese population. Rival gangs and political factions routinely "informed" on their foes, turning the program into a rather bloodier version of Hatfields and McCoys.

Which appears to be happening quite frequently in Mesopotamia. Duh. For the life of me, I can't understand why the warmongers couldn't envision this. Their view of Iraqis ranges from clueless naiivete to a vicious racism. The fact that they've been living in the region for hundreds of years doesn't seem to register one whit.

Let's forget the illusions and propaganda. The people of Iraq are no better or worse than people anywhere. Some are no doubt good people, some have their own agenda, and some will do almost anything to get ahead. Shoot, the occupation troops are basically doing the same thing--trying to gain an advantage by playing various factions against each other.

One little problem vis-a-vis the Coalition's position, though, is that they are the new kids on the block, as it were. Add to this that there are language and cultural issues, and it's damn easy, in my mind, to see why they're the ones most often taken for a ride. All the military might in the world can't make up for a lack of information.

As a result, frustration sets in. Eventually this manifests itself in such things as, I don't know, ritual humiliation and abuse of detainees, for example. In other words, they'll show the rag-headed camel jockeys just who's the boss. However, as others with far more knowledge than me have said, this is disasterous in the long term. Insults are rarely forgotten--no matter how many "good deeds" are done by way of contrition.

But how much longer will it take before the country wakes up? And what will it take for that to happen?