McClatchy: U.S. finds a way to pacify Iraqi town — by using cash

[babylonsister]

U.S. finds a way to pacify Iraqi town — by using cash
By Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers

* Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007


JURF AL SAKHR, Iraq — In this desolate tiny town in what was once called the Triangle of Death, signs of the violent past mix oddly with evidence of today's more tranquil life.

Large plots of land emptied by car bombs sit next to refurbished buildings. A new water treatment plant looks out to blast walls that haven’t been necessary for months. A newly opened clothes shop is next to one that's been shut for ages.

The U.S. calls this former al Qaida stronghold a paragon of post-surge Iraq. Violence has come to a near-standstill. Yet the government that's emerged is far from the democratic republic that the Bush administration once promised.

The town is run by deals among its anointed leaders, nearly all of them former Sunni Muslim insurgents. None was elected. No one pays any mind to what might be happening in Iraq’s Shiite-dominated parliament in Baghdad. In fact, residents assume that the elected central government will never help them.

Instead, the insurgents-turned-leaders depend on an influx of money from the U.S. or from the provincial government to keep Islamic extremists from dominating the town again. So far, the U.S. military has spent $1 million, the cost of one of the military’s newest armored vehicles, on reconstruction projects and salaries for residents to secure the town and its surrounding area — 30,000 people in all. If the U.S. plan works, the next million will come from the Shiite-led provincial government.

U.S. officials acknowledge that their approach is tenuous, but one that so far has produced a big drop in violence. No U.S. soldier has been attacked since June, and they can now walk in town with some assurance of safety.

more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/21406.html

[Greeby]

1. Maybe if they'd tried that first off

Yanno :shrug:

[annabanana]

2. hmmmm, Fire Blackwater and all the other mercs! This

will surely be held up by some repuke or other as evidence that "things in Iraq are turning around". .

[rodeodance]

3. lots of reports/articles saying cash is our main tactic now. What happens

when the cash runs out???

[NNN0LHI]

6. Keep printing more of it until the dollar becomes worthless

Which is exactly what is happing now.

Don

[rodeodance]

4. Sheik Sabah said that if the U.S. support were to stop, “al Qaida would return.”

.....And it isn't clear whether the Shiite provincial government will support the Sunni town.

U.S. commanders cannot say how long they'll continue pumping money into areas such as Jurf al Sakhr. Last week, Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil, the commanding general of the Multinational Division in Baghdad, as well as the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, could say only that the funding wouldn't continue for “years and years.”

Sheik Sabah said that if the U.S. support were to stop, “al Qaida would return.”

And while residents might not attack U.S. soldiers anymore, their disdain remains. As U.S. troops walked up to Sheik Sabah's office last week, his young son, Ahmad, sneered “Go away” in Arabic.

Moltz said he doesn’t care: “I don’t have anyone lying to me anymore. I don’t have anyone bombing me anymore.”

And he rejected suggestions that Sheik Sabah or his backers would turn and embrace their former insurgent lifestyle. “Why would they? They couldn’t walk through their streets then.”

[rodeodance]

5. "distain" for US troops remains

And while residents might not attack U.S. soldiers anymore, their disdain remains. As U.S. troops walked up to Sheik Sabah's office last week, his young son, Ahmad, sneered “Go away” in Arabic.

[NNN0LHI]

7. Wonder how much Bush paid Osama bin Laden to quit knocking our buildings down?

Just saying...

Don

[babylonsister]

8. Or to start knocking them down...

Just sayin'...

;) It could have happened that way...

[lurky]

9. Um, considering how much money we are burning in this war,

it might actually be cheaper just to pay these guys not to blow stuff up.

[doc03]

10. I agree, I heard yesterday that the war has cost each family

in the USA $20,000. Considering the much smaller population in Iraq we could have put every Iraqi family in a very nice home and gave each family a new Escalade and still saved money.

[DCKit]

13. Or pay them to rebuild their communities. Idle hands and all that. nt

[sinkingfeeling]

11. I said that years ago. That we could have kept the troops home and just spent a $trillion paying

off all 25 million Iraqis.

[doc03]

12. We could have just gave Saddam a couple billion

and saved a lot of trouble. Wasn't Saddam open for negotiations before we invaded them but Bush was dead set on war. Why not just save a lot of trouble and call in Acmadimajad and offer him a few billion, everyone has his price..