September 15, 2007

Spin City

SEN. BYRD: General Petraeus, you've touted success in Anbar province. Just a few months ago, the tribes in Anbar providence were shooting and killing Americans.

Recently they decided they disliked the terrorist there more than they dislike Americans, so they're cooperating with us, for the time being, while we give them money and arms. This recalls in my mind our policy in the 1980's in Afghanistan of arming the Taliban to fight the Soviet Union. We all know how that short-term policy hurt our long- term interest.

What guarantee can you give us that the tribes in Anbar are not going to turn around and use the guns we gave them against our troops once they feel we no longer serve their interest?

Isn't that a short-sighted policy?

GEN. PETRAEUS: Senator, first of all, we are not arming the tribes. We have not provided weapons to them.

What we did initially is basically give a thumbs up when they asked if it would be OK if they pointed the weapons they did have, they were already well-enough armed, at al Qaeda because they had come to reject the Taliban like ideology and barbarity of al Qaeda in the Euphrates River Valley.

And at this point, their salaries in Anbar Province, of the vast majority of these individuals are being paid by the central Iraqi government because they have been picked up as members, have either joined the army or joined local police forces up and down the Euphrates River Valley.

So, there is a connection to a national chain of command and to a national salary structure that does give considerable leverage to the national government over those individuals. [my emphasis]

"Considerable leverage", eh? That's rather ludicrous, I'm afraid.

Posted by Gregory at September 15, 2007 11:04 PM