Bushistas Gush Success While Bribing Iraqis With Your Tax Dollars

Well, they had to find some way to pretend it looks positive.

by Chris Floyd

"Not since the Civil War days of George McClellan has an American general been so feted and trumpeted for his crushing defeats – although not even McClellan went as far as paying Rebel guerrillas like Bill Quantrill and his murderous bushwhackers to take over chunks of Union territory and run it as a personal fiefdom. But that is exactly what Petraeus is doing in Iraq. He is shelling out millions in taxpayer dollars to groups that only a few weeks ago were killing Americans and launching terrorist attacks with their allies in the extremist bands loosely grouped under the rubric "al Qaeda." (It's obvious that "al Qaeda" is losing its brand specificity and, like "xerox" or "zipper," is becoming a generic term applied to all manner of items beyond the original product.)

Of course, buying off your enemy is an ancient military tactic, and it certainly beats killing each other – and innumerable "collaterals" in the process. But Petraeus is not only paying terrorists and insurgents and death squadders to lay off the roadside bombs and sniper fire in the "Sunni Awakening" movement: he's giving them iron-fisted control over various walled enclaves, where – surprise, surprise! – they are lording it over the locals with brutal abandon, while American forces look the other way, or actively assist."