Message to Iraqi Soldiers Working with US

A message for those Iraqi soldiers in small US combat outposts, "your gun emplacement positions might be rigged with explosives."

Just another "reality" of war. Imagine what would happen if an insurgent infiltrated the Iraqi troops, and one of these infiltrators was manning a 50-caliber gun emplacement when the combat outpost came under attack? The insurgent could turn the gun on the outpost itself, wiping out a lot of US solders.

BUT, if the gun emplacement was rigged with explosives, the Americans could take it out. It could also be argued that the emplacement could be over-run, thereby justifying its rigging with explosives.

This scenario supposedly occurred in Vietnam. With Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch's honest talk about a possible Tet Offensive, this scenario is probably being played out in Iraq today.

I don't blame the American Soldiers who are simply trying to survive, nor should the Iraqi soldiers. They should blame George W. Bush who is guilty of crimes against peace:

To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.

- Chief American prosecutor, Robert H. Jackson, Nuremberg.

As fifty US soldiers report in the Nation Magazine expose' entitled, The Other Iraq War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness, the US presence in Iraq is a major source of the conflict. They call on Congress to end the US occupation of Iraq. If this happens, the scenario of US troops feeling compelled to booby-trap their allies positions cannot happen.

Sources:

The Nation, July 9, 2007, Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian, The Other Iraq War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness.

Time, July 16, 2007,MARK KUKIS, Fears of a Tet Offensive in Iraq.

Art Credit: Michael Bernstein, "The Sunny Pessimist Takes Cover from the Imperceptible" and Hudson Franklin gallery, 508 West 26th Street, New York. West Chelsea.

A Crack of Honesty from Rick Lynch

Frustration might be leading to more honest statements by Third Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, whose forces control the area of a bridge bombing in Mahmoudiya.

There are tribal sheiks out there who say 'Hey, just allow me to be the local security force. I don't care what you call me. ... You can call me whatever you want [e.g., "insurgent"]. Just give me the right training and equipment and I'll secure my area.' And that's the direction we're moving out there.

In a meeting with reporters, Lynch said contacts with the Sunnis, who make up the bulk of the insurgency, were a matter of pragmatism.

They say: 'We hate you because you are an occupier, but we hate al-Qaida worse and we hate the Persians (Iranians) even worse' ... you can't ignore that whole population.

Lynch's division, he said, had lost 43 soldiers since the beginning of the U.S. troop surge on Feb. 14.

Sources:

Associated Press, Iraq bridge collapse traps U.S. soldiers, CHARLES J. HANLEY, June 10, 2007.