A Day’s Work for a Day’s Pay?
On the other hand, I read a lot about how Sunni tribal leaders and insurgents have “turned against AQI,” and how we’re paying them to – er, supporting them with financing and logistics in their fight against AQI. But actual reporting on what they’re doing to fight AQI is scarce. Aside from pocketing our money and manning some checkpoints, what are they doing?
« « Did We Have the “Will” | Main | If You Build a Bridge to Nowhere Will FA Hayek Come (as it Were)? » »
Comment by Bill —
September 12, 2007 @ 9:33 pm
Oh man, don’t ask. It probably involves electric drills and blowtorches, stuff we really don’t wanna know about.
Comment by chris —
September 12, 2007 @ 11:03 pm
Manifesting will.
Comment by Leonard —
September 13, 2007 @ 12:14 am
Killing a bunch of guys they’ve always hated from the village next door, planting “durka durka muhammad jihad” pamphlets and AKs on the bodies, then calling up the local American “advisors” to come see.
Comment by lemuel pitkin —
September 13, 2007 @ 7:17 am
If you start from the premise that the real battle lines in Iraq are between Sunni and Shia, and AQI is a sideshow, then it becomes clear that it’s not the Sunni leaders who have changed sides. It’s the U.S.
Comment by jlw —
September 13, 2007 @ 9:30 am
What are we paying them to do? Not attack us.
Jesus. The US Army is now being shaken down for protection money. Couple that with the Bush Administration’s “bust out”-quality fiscal management and the strippers-’n'-SUVs aesthetic in the society as a whole, and the entire decade is looking like an extended episode of The Sopranos.
Comment by Jim Henley —
September 13, 2007 @ 9:37 am
Everyone see the, um, news on the Anbar Awakening front this morning?
Comment by Tom Scudder —
September 13, 2007 @ 11:40 am
You mean that the new new Bashir Gemayel got himself blowed up?
Comment by dogfacegeorge —
September 13, 2007 @ 2:00 pm
Look, the war is costing us many multiples of Iraq’s entire GDP. Paying them not to kill us is the rational, and relatively inexpensive, way of “winning.”