Talking Surge: Another Imminent Iraq Bloody Disaster--James Brooks

Tweet "This [surge strategy] is not the first time the US has adopted a policy of failure in Iraq. The Salvador Option, reported out of the Pentagon two years ago, involves much more than a network of paramilitary death squads attacking the popular insurgency. It is also a known recipe for extremely bloody civil war, as demonstrated in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Honduras, to name a few.

"When the Salvador Option is invoked, it is an admission that the "battle for hearts and minds" is lost. Once it is triggered, the victim nation will be subjected to an indefinite reign of terror until it "comes to its senses" and accepts "international standards".

"Bishops may be assassinated while saying Mass. Nuns may be raped, tortured, murdered, and mutilated. Native Indians may be murdered by the tens of thousands. Anything goes. Meanwhile, the diplomatic, economic, and intelligence meddling will continue unabated, and the American public will eat a parade of stories about new "peace plans" and "early exit" strategies. That is the history of the Salvador Option.

"It is a policy of winning while losing. It is reminiscent in a general way of Nixon’s "plan to end the war", which merely led to another "surge" for victory involving the apocalyptic carpet-bombing of Cambodia and Vietnam. Five years after America voted for his "secret" plan, Nixon resigned in disgrace. But the US military was still in Vietnam, "training its replacements".

"The sober lesson to be drawn is that, in the eyes of US policy makers, any amount of pointless suffering and death is preferable to an admission of defeat. Even the symbolic defeat involved in bringing the troops home "before their mission is complete" is deemed unacceptable, as a political risk, as a return on investment, and as a matter of imperial strategy, especially at this "moment of perceived weakness". [emphasis added]

Found on Uruknet.info