by Tom Hayden
www.thenation.com
All along there were two US wars in Iraq. There was the public war, in which the Pentagon tried to manipulate the mainstream media into being a "message amplifier," while some intrepid reporters and bloggers fought back. Then there was the secret war carried out by the Special Operations forces, whose existence was denied even by the Pentagon.
Now the secret operations threaten to completely compromise what remains of the public war in Afghanistan and Pakistan with the ascension of Gen. Stanley McChrystal to top commander from his classified role in running Special Ops in Iraq for five years.
When questioned by the media or senators presiding at his confirmation hearing in a few weeks, Gen. McChrystal may have a simple answer to anything troubling: sorry, that is classified.
The mystique of secrecy may come to shroud all public inquiry about Afghanistan and Pakistan. There are questions to be answered, however.
One is framed on page 380 of Bob Woodward's book The War Within, in which the author describes a top-secret operation in 2006 that targeted and killed insurgents with such effectiveness that it gave "orgasms" to Derek Harvey, a top aide to Gen. David Petraeus and longtime tracker of Iraqi dissidents. The secret program was led by McChrystal, then a lieutenant general, using signals intercepts, informants and other tools of what McChrystal calls "collaborative warfare" through Special Access Programs (SAPS) and Special Compartmented Information (SCI.) McChrystal, according to the New York Times, conducted and commanded most of his secret missions at night. These missions were consistent with the proposals of Petraeus's top counterinsurgency adviser at the time, David Kilcullen, to revive the discredited Phoenix Program used in South Vietnam.
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punditman says...
Who is this General Stanley McChrystal dude? Turns out he's the guy the Pentagon found guilty of fabricating false information in the 2004 death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman. Readers may recall the Arizona Cardinals football player was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. McChrystal is the guy they held accountable for a newspeak story that claimed Tillman died from "devastating enemy fire." Tillman was an interesting guy. He despised Bush and thought the Iraq War was illegal and had arranged for a meeting with Noam Chomsky to take place after his return from Afghanistan.
Obama's ability to wage aggressive war "with a human face" is no doubt making Dickhead Cheney jealous. Punditman unhappily concludes that the Obama administration is quickly becoming exactly what Punditman expected: a wolf in sheep's clothing, with the sheep quickly losing its' wooly fluff on all fronts. It appears the metamorphosis is nearly complete.
www.thenation.com
All along there were two US wars in Iraq. There was the public war, in which the Pentagon tried to manipulate the mainstream media into being a "message amplifier," while some intrepid reporters and bloggers fought back. Then there was the secret war carried out by the Special Operations forces, whose existence was denied even by the Pentagon.
Now the secret operations threaten to completely compromise what remains of the public war in Afghanistan and Pakistan with the ascension of Gen. Stanley McChrystal to top commander from his classified role in running Special Ops in Iraq for five years.
When questioned by the media or senators presiding at his confirmation hearing in a few weeks, Gen. McChrystal may have a simple answer to anything troubling: sorry, that is classified.
The mystique of secrecy may come to shroud all public inquiry about Afghanistan and Pakistan. There are questions to be answered, however.
One is framed on page 380 of Bob Woodward's book The War Within, in which the author describes a top-secret operation in 2006 that targeted and killed insurgents with such effectiveness that it gave "orgasms" to Derek Harvey, a top aide to Gen. David Petraeus and longtime tracker of Iraqi dissidents. The secret program was led by McChrystal, then a lieutenant general, using signals intercepts, informants and other tools of what McChrystal calls "collaborative warfare" through Special Access Programs (SAPS) and Special Compartmented Information (SCI.) McChrystal, according to the New York Times, conducted and commanded most of his secret missions at night. These missions were consistent with the proposals of Petraeus's top counterinsurgency adviser at the time, David Kilcullen, to revive the discredited Phoenix Program used in South Vietnam.
Keep Reading...
punditman says...
Who is this General Stanley McChrystal dude? Turns out he's the guy the Pentagon found guilty of fabricating false information in the 2004 death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman. Readers may recall the Arizona Cardinals football player was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. McChrystal is the guy they held accountable for a newspeak story that claimed Tillman died from "devastating enemy fire." Tillman was an interesting guy. He despised Bush and thought the Iraq War was illegal and had arranged for a meeting with Noam Chomsky to take place after his return from Afghanistan.
Obama's ability to wage aggressive war "with a human face" is no doubt making Dickhead Cheney jealous. Punditman unhappily concludes that the Obama administration is quickly becoming exactly what Punditman expected: a wolf in sheep's clothing, with the sheep quickly losing its' wooly fluff on all fronts. It appears the metamorphosis is nearly complete.
