Many U.S. "COMBAT" Troops In Iraq To Be Reclassified As "TRAINERS" And "ADVISERS"

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Some U.S. Combat Troops To Be Reclassified
by Staff


The U.S-Iraq agreement calls for the withdrawal of combat forces from Iraq cities by June, but officials say many will remain as reclassified personnel.

Military planners acknowledge many will be renamed "trainers" and "advisers" in what officials told The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) are essentially combat roles.

"Trainers sometimes do get shot at, and they do sometimes have to shoot back," said John A. Nagl, a retired lieutenant colonel and one of the authors of the U.S. Army's new counterinsurgency field manual.

The issue could cause difficulties for President-elect Barack Obama, who must meld three deadlines -- the June deadline, the May 2010 date he spoke of during his campaign and the December 2011 deadline in the status-of-forces agreement under which all U.S. troops must pull out of the country, the Times reported Monday.

<snip>

http://www.postchronicle.com/news/breakingnews/article_212195055.shtml

[Hydra]

1. HA!

I knew we were never leaving.

50 Years?

100?

1000?

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Sound familiar?

http://www.olive-drab.com/od_history_vietnam_advisors.php

Vietnam: U.S. Advisors 1955-1965

The U.S. military advisory effort in Vietnam had a modest beginning in September 1950, when the United States Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG), Vietnam, was established in Saigon. Its mission was to supervise the issuance and employment of $10 million of military equipment to support French legionnaires in their effort to combat Viet Minh forces. By 1953 the amount of U.S. military aid had jumped to over $350 million and was used to replace the badly worn World War II vintage equipment that France, still suffering economically from the devastation of that war, was still using.



U.S. Military Advisor from the 1st Special Forces Group working
with ARVN soldiers in Ban Me Thout, Vietnam, March 1962.

[gratuitous]

3. Sounds REAL familiar

How do all these commercials about duty and honor and integrity get on my teevee without it throwing up?

[Orwellian_Ghost]

4. Yes

<snip>

Vietnam, 59-69 the SEALs and the Phoenix Program. The Intel Coordination and Exploitation Program (ICEX) was a joint MACV/CIA op - forerunner of Phoenix. SEALs helped train VNese personnel. SEALs assigned ops detachments. SEALs worked with PRUs. By 68, with prisoner snatches, ambushes, and increasing VC defections, ICEX program neutralizing 800 VCI every month. Phoenix began 7/1/68. Description of the province intel ops coordinating center (piocc) and the district (diocc). Combatting VCI in urban areas responsibility of national police force and police field force. SEALs taught PRUsin mekong delta. Description of prus. They the most effective native troops. By end of 68, the iv corps PRUswere almost entirely advised by seal personnel. Seal advisors accompanied PRUson average of 15 missions a month. Description of ops. Dockery, K. (1991). SEALs in Action, 167-176.

Vietnam, 68-73 ttwo small groups wreaked havoc on the VCI. The Provincial Reconnaissance Units (PRU) and the Navy's SEALs. PRUs and SEALs often worked together and both killed many VCI and guerrillas -- the enemy had wrapped itself in the population. Together they were fewer than 6000 men. They had access to the best intel often coming directly from CIA. Pru had roots in the counterterror teams of the early 60s. In 66 the ct became prus. Details of the makeup and recruiting source of the prus. PRUsoften killed targets. Military participation in the pru program was to end in 10/70. Pru was the most effective action arm of the Phoenix Program. Details of the SEALs larger-than-life reputation earned in VN. Andrade, D. (1990), Ashes to Ashes, 171-199.

Vietnam, 65-72 During Nixon's first 2 1/2 years, state department officially admits that the CIA-run Phoenix Program murdered or abducted 35,708 VNese civilians, 4,836 more than the pentagon claimed the NLF had assassinated or kidnapped during the same period, and a monthly increase over the 200 killed by the CIA every month under johnson. Senator Gravel edition, (1971), Pentagon Papers v 300.

Vietnam, 65-73 Phoenix Program torture tactics include rape, electric shock, water torture, hanging from ceiling, beatings, incarceration and execution. Counterspy 5/73 16. Vietnam, 69-71 K. Barton Osborn, Phoenix agent, testified to Congress "I never knew an individual to be detained as a VC suspect who ever lived through an interrogation in a year and a half. Uc 114. Note says this testimony given before U.S. Congress,Heari. 315-321.

<snip>

http://www.serendipity.li/cia/operation_phoenix.htm

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. You beat me to it, Nam, c. 1956

[Hekate]

6. "Iraq" is Arabic for "Vietnam".... Quicksand instead of a quagmire... We knew it. We saw it...

We shouted it.

Ah well.

Hekate