Re-defining our way to "success"

In the continuing efforts to divide the terrorist sectarian militias into "good" and "bad" camps, we now see that one of the primary tools to bring "success" to Iraq is to simply change definitions of terms. In my previous post, I asked about the definition of the term "insurgent". In the article below we see that the military has changed the definition of one of the sectarian militias in Diyala so that they are no longer "insurgents" at all.

Let's take a look at how one of the "boots on the ground" in Diyala assessed the 1920 Revolution Brigade, as they call themselves:

A Sunni insurgent group we’ve been battling for months, responsible for the death of my friend and numerous attacks, agreed to fight Al Qaeda alongside us. Since then, they’ve grown into a much more organized, lethal force. They use this organization to steal cars and intimidate and torture the local population, or anyone they accuse of being linked to Al Qaeda. The Gestapo of the 21st century, sanctioned by the United States Army.

This assessment from Alex came a mere one week ago. Since they have allied with us for the time being, they are "patriots", not terrorists. Yet, let's look at another of Alex's observations concerning an exchange with one of these "patriots":

For now, our relationship with 1920 is one of mutual distrust and hatred, a sign of the times. A conversation between a member of my platoon and a 1920 source is ripe with foreboding on the future of this partnership, and of the war to come.
“Do you want to kill me?” asked the soldier.
“Yes,” replied the source, coldly and without emotion. “But not today.”

Can you feel the love?
How could this approach possibly fail?
We are now throwing away the possibility of real success for the sake of claiming success over Al-Qaeda, in a process that is merely keeping Al-Qaeda "on the run". We are merely deferring the inevitable conflict with the sectarian militias in order to create a short-term illusion of "progress" against a relatively minor factor in the "big picture" of unrest and instability. Unable to resolve the complex social, ethnic, and political issues creating unrest and instability by solely military means, the senior officers of our military have instead engaged in a "semantics offensive" to re-define our way to victory. We have already witnessed the re-definiton of "success" to exclude car bombings and sectarian militia killings and to include the mere ability to drive Al-Qaeda's violence into other areas. We have already seen Bush "lowering the bar" for "victory" to merely a reduction of violence to pre-surge levels that may or may not even include "democracy" in its definition. Now we are seeing the "elimination" of sectarian militias by merely changing the definition of the words.

Perhaps we should merely re-define the word "corpse" and make some real progress?



full story

What's in a name? U.S. rebrands Iraq ex-insurgents

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces have rebranded one of the main insurgent groups in Iraq and now use the term "concerned local nationals" to refer to a group that once claimed responsibility for killing scores of Americans.

The updated vocabulary for referring to the 1920 Revolution Brigade, described by a U.S. commander on Saturday, is a sign of the abrupt change in tactics that has seen U.S. forces cooperate with former Sunni Arab enemies

The 1920 Revolution Brigade was one of the main anti-American Sunni Arab insurgent groups in Iraq in the years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and has claimed responsibility for killing scores of U.S. troops in ambushes and bomb attacks.

But for the past several months its members have cooperated with U.S. forces to help drive the strict al Qaeda Islamists out of Sunni Arab areas, part of a new U.S. tactic of cooperating with former Sunni Arab foes against al Qaeda.

Colonel David Sutherland, the U.S. commander in Diyala Province, said his men prefer not to call the group by its name.

"The 1920s as they're called, we call them 'the Baquba Guardians', we call them the 'concerned local nationals'," he said. Baquba is the provincial capital.

"These are patriots who have come forward and have joined the security process. They are working with my soldiers and they are working with the Iraqi security forces," he said.

Al Qaeda's adherence to a hardline form of Sunni Islam and indiscriminate attacks has isolated it from Sunni Arabs and nationalist insurgent groups.

Sutherland said the 1920 Revolution Brigade name was now being used widely to refer to local pro-government militia and not anti-American insurgents. Some Shi'ite elders were asking if they too could recruit "1920s," he said, a sign the Sunni Arab group's name was no longer seen as sectarian.

"It has become a name, a catch-all phrase for these concerned local nationals throughout the province," he told a news conference by video link to Baghdad.

His forces "do not deal with terrorists, and if we have information on individuals then we will act accordingly," Sutherland said. "The individuals we are working with.... I have confidence in them and I have confidence in their leadership."