Speaking of Covert Operations

The US is considering reviving the "death squad" policy again.

NEWSWEEK has learned the Pentagon is intensively debating an option–the so-called ‘Salvador option’–that dates back to a still-secret strategy in the Reagan administration’s battle against the leftist guerrilla insurgency in El Salvador in the early 1980s. Then, faced with a losing war against Salvadoran rebels, the U.S. government funded or supported “nationalist” forces that allegedly included so-called death squads directed to hunt down and kill rebel leaders and sympathizers.

Eventually the insurgency was quelled, and many U.S. conservatives consider the policy to have been a success—despite the deaths of innocent civilians and the subsequent Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal.

Following that model, one Pentagon proposal would send Special Forces teams to advise, support and possibly train Iraqi squads, most likely hand-picked Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shiite militiamen, to target Sunni insurgents and their sympathizers, even across the border into Syria, according to military insiders familiar with the discussions. It remains unclear, however, whether this would be a policy of assassination or so-called “snatch” operations, in which the targets are sent to secret facilities for interrogation. The current thinking is that while U.S. Special Forces would lead operations in, say, Syria, activities inside Iraq itself would be carried out by Iraqi paramilitaries, officials tell NEWSWEEK.

Sounds awesome! Way to show those muslim countries what a shining beacon of light the US is in terms of human rights!

I suppose in one sense, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo have already demonstrated this, and "death squads" aren't going to change muslim's views of the US. And I suppose the Bush administration thinks the "death squad" technique might help them "win".

Of course, mostly this really shows how desperate the US is.

My recommendation: declare victory and withdraw immediately. In the short run, it makes us look a little bad, but in the long run, it will save thousands of lives and a lot of money, and will accomplish the same thing as us staying for several more years-- that is, nothing.

But of course no one is going to listen to me.