The Salvadorization of Iraq?(The New York Times Magazine)

[RedEarth]

The New York Times Magazine May 01,2005
The Salvadorization of Iraq?
The counterinsurgency is increasingly being waged by former elite troops of Saddam Hussein’s army, with guidance from a U.S. adviser who in the 80’s commanded the Special Forces in El Salvador. It’s not a pretty campaign.

In a country of tough guys, Adnan Thabit may be the toughest of all. He was both a general and a death-row prisoner under Saddam Hussein. He favors leather jackets no matter the weather, his left index finger extends only to the knuckle (the rest was sliced off in combat) and he responds to requests from supplicants with grunts that mean yes or no. Occasionally, a humble aide approaches to spray perfume on his hands, which he wipes over his rugged face.

General Adnan, as he is known, is the leader of Iraq’s most fearsome counterinsurgency force. It is called the Special Police Commandos and consists of about 5,000 troops. They have fought the insurgents in Mosul, Ramadi, Baghdad and Samarra. It was in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad in the heart of the Sunni Triangle, where, in early March, I spent a week with Adnan, himself a Sunni, and two battalions of his commandos. Samarra is Adnan’s hometown, and he had come to retake it. As the offensive to drive out the insurgents got under way, the only area securely under Adnan’s control was a barricaded enclave around the town hall, where he grimly presided over matters of war and peace, but mostly war, chain-smoking Royal cigarettes at a raised desk in the mayor’s office. With a jowly face set in a permanent scowl, Adnan is perfectly suited to the grim realities of Iraq, and he knows it. When an admiring American colonel compared him to Marlon Brando in ‘‘The Godfather,’’ Adnan took it as a compliment and smiled.

Early one evening, I was sitting in his office when an officer entered with a stomp of his heel — an Iraqi salute of sorts. He reported to Adnan that a rebel weapons cache had been discovered, and Adnan congratulated him — but issued a warning. ‘‘If even one AK-47 is stolen,’’ he said, ‘‘I will kill you.’’ After a pause, he smiled and refined the threat. ‘‘No,’’ he said, ‘‘I will kill your’’ — and he used a coarse word that referred to the officer’s most private body part. There was nervous laughter. Everyone seemed certain that not a single gun, or single anything, would go missing.

Not long ago, hard men like Adnan, especially Sunnis, were giving orders to no one. Six weeks after the fall of Baghdad, the Coalition Provisional Authority dismissed the Sunni-led Iraqi Army, and the United States military set out to rebuild Iraq’s armed forces from the ground up, training new officers and soldiers rather than calling on those who knew how to fight but had done so in the service of Saddam Hussein. By late last year, though, it had become clear that the new American-trained forces were not shaping up as an effective fighting force, and the old guard was called upon. Now people like Adnan, a former Baathist who was sentenced to death for conspiring to overthrow Hussein, have been given the task of defeating the insurgency. The new strategy is showing signs of success, but it is a success that may carry its own costs.

http://www.petermaass.com/core.cfm?p=1&mag=123&magtype=1