US trying to understand Iraq insurgency -Negroponte

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N29387052.htm

US trying to understand Iraq insurgency -Negroponte

WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence is still struggling to understand the nature of Iraq's insurgency more than two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte said on Thursday.

Negroponte, a former ambassador to Iraq who became director of national intelligence five months ago, said not enough had been done to come to grips with the insurgents who by some estimates have killed more than 5,000 Iraqi civilians and security forces.

...

"It's a very, very difficult issue," Negroponte told an audience of intelligence officials in Washington.

"There's no analytical issue that is more important, no intelligence issue more important, than understanding the nature of the insurgency in all of its aspects.

[OKNancy]

1. Oh, let's see...

Open a history book.

[saigon68]

7. A street without Joy ---- by Bernard Fall

A poignant, angry, articulate book¹ Newsweek
ŒMr Fall¹s book is a dramatic treatment of a historic event ­ graphic impact¹ New York Times
Originally published in 1961, before the United States escalated its involvement in South Vietnam, Street Without Joy offered a clear warning about what American forces would face in the jungles of Southeast Asia; a costly and protracted revolutionary war fought without fronts against a mobile enemy. In harrowing detail, Fall describes the brutality and frustrations of the Indochina War, the savage eight-year conflict, ending in 1954 after the fall of Dien Bien Phu, in which French forces suffered a staggering defeat at the hands of Communist-led Vietnamese nationalists. Street Without Joy was required reading for policymakers in Washington and GIs in the field and is now considered a classi

[Mountainman]

2. Well let's see. If an invading military force attacked us and we wanted

to keep them from occupying our country and from stealing our natural resources we would fight back. They would do the same, understand?

[aquart]

3. Is he being funny?

[niyad]

4. hmmm, let's see--we invade their country, occupy it, destroy their

infrastructure, thousands of years of history, murder and maim and wound countless thousands of their citizens, steal their oil, , ,gee, why would they hate us for all that?

[Fire Walk With Me]

26. They were supposed to welcome us with flowers and open arms, for that

Ingrates :sarcasm:

[brainshrub]

5. Earth to Negroponte:

Some things to consider:

1) Iraqis know about the death squads you organized in Central America. This doesn't exactly endear you to their hearts.

2) The insurgency is caused, and fueled, by the occupation. (Duh!)

It isn't that hard to understand.

[mike_c]

6. spin...

...as usual. Confuse the issue. Obfuscate. Lie.

[samdogmom]

8. Jeez! This doesn't take a rocket scientist!

Let's see, we've ruined their infrastructure--no water, electricity, jobs, safety, etc. We keep killing innocent citizens. We torture the prisoners--many of whom have never been charged or convicted of a crime. We break into their homes and businesses at will--looking for who knows what. All in all we've made their day to day lives a living hell.

And we wonder why there are insurgents!

[ananda]

9. I understand the Iraqi rebellion..

.. and I live in the USA.

I think that Republicans are idiotic and insane if they can't understand it.

Of course, look at the various racist, obstructive, and unhelpful disaster responses lately....

Iraq is simply a disaster, too; and it wouldn't surprise me at all if incompetence and chaos have become policy.

Sue

[htuttle]

10. "We don't understand it, but we're sure it's in its last throes..."

Right.

:eyes:

[malaise]

11. What's to understand

Who welcomes invaders?

[Inland]

12. "understanding the enemy." That's a comment that a democrat

would be roasted for.

The neocon wannabes would say, "Oh, he wants to understand the feelings of those killers, the enemy, make friends, touchy feeliny! Our man Bush just wants to KILL, KILL them all, no understanding!"

But all of the sudden they figure out it's hard to kill an insurgency without knowing where it comes from, what motivates it, who supports it, and how to cut it off from that support.

Three years after the invasion.

[ElectroPrincess]

16. And right in the middle of the process of

ole' Porter Goss, the ignorant BushBot crone *gutting* the CIA. Oh yeah, human intelligence (HUMINT)- what's that? Answer: It's wealthy ex-patriots feeding Rummy the Intelligence that he and his warmongering stooges "wants to hear."

Can we say, Bomb Iran?

[tom_paine]

13. Translation: More Death Squads required

The Ambassador of Death Squads has got 'is thikin cap on.

Again I say: Busheviks remind me of nothing so much as Communists.

I imagine the Chinese Ambassador of Death Squads saying such a think in the unlikely event they chose to invade us.

He would be equally puzzled at why the American were resisting the Chinese bringing us "freedom".

Totalitarian Scum are Totalitarian Scum, no matter what portion of the political spectrum they use to justify their monstrous behaviors.

[ElectroPrincess]

14. Here's a clue ...

Since these insurgents tend to be 85-90% Iraqi NATIVES, how about we term this "Nationalism"?

Remind you of another quagmire we were sucked into on a lie (Gulf of Tonkin)? Hum? Will we have to lose over 58,000 troops to learn that "the natives" will fight to the last standing person to reclaim THEIR LAND?!?

Does the term "ILLEGAL Occupation" mean anything to *anyone* who has power within the USA's Government?

[hwmnbn]

15. Here are some clues.....

The U.S. is a foreign occupying military force in their country. We are there to steal and control their natural resources for our own purposes.

We've been responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of their men, women and children. We've destroyed what was left of their infrastructure and put two of their major cities under martial law.

We used to support their previous tyrant and looked the other way when he gassed the Kurds and slaughtered many Shite Muslims. We are insisting they adopt a different form of government.

BTW, they've been attacked by "christians" throughout their history.

I personally can see why some of them might be a bit peeved.

[gratuitous]

17. Pablum for their base

{Shrug} "Well, it's too complex. Can't make head nor tail out of it. Difficult issue, you know. So just accept the fact that we're there, our people are getting killed by the hundreds, we're spending money by the billions, and there's no end in sight, no benchmarks to measure progress, no way of telling whether we're being effective or not. There is, therefore, no basis for any criticism of what we're doing or not doing, because no one can tell anything for sure. So just keep sending over more of your sons and daughters, and keep writing those checks out of the Treasury based on nothing more than the sparkling personality of the people telling you to do that."

[0007]

18. Tis strange how a guy can go from an Iran/Contra convict

to being the U.S. intelligence chief. John Negroponte is worse than Henry Kissinger and that's takes some doing. Of course junior has got Nixon beat also.

It appears that the Iraqis are two steps ahead of Mr. Negroponte and now he's telling us it is a very, very difficult issue.

What an asswipe asshole!

[Roland99]

19. None more important? Nothing like, oh, bin Laden?

What about determining why terrorism exists to begin with?

[goodhue]

20. a very, very difficult struggle

so I guess he wants some slack
not sure whether to laugh or cry at such calculated obtuseness

[enigma000]

21. Too late for that

If they haven't figured it out 30 months in, I doubt they ever will. A foreign army of Jews (oops Crusaders) invade and overthrow Iraq's God-Emperor Saddam and remove the Sunni Arabs from power. The Sunni Arabs, who have ruled or administered what is now known as Iraq for the last 500 years, like many Arabs have Master Race (tm) delusions. As well, Sunnis believe they are the one true religion of Allah.

But now the sub-human Kurds and infidel Shiites are running the show. Of course they are angry. Were the slave owners of the Confederacy angry after the Civil War? Were white South Africans not angry after the fall of Apartheid?

[TheCowsCameHome]

22. You've can't be serious, can you?

[enigma000]

28. Of course not

The Kurds, Shiites and Sunni all get along & are one big happy family. That's why there is no civil war. The suicide bombers are actually British & American fundamentalist Christians killing themselves for Christ. There is no Iraq resistance. Falluga doesn't exist - its a Phy Op created by Karl Rove and Micheal Moore at CIA headquarters.

[soothsayer]

23. Maybe he's wondering why the US people haven't revolted

against shrubbie and his gang of thieves?

[MGKrebs]

24. Place to start, John:

We are treating it like it is a war, and it is not a war. You will have to reach into the other box of tools besides Soldiers.

[rodeodance]

25. keep trying John.

[tainowarrior]

27. Lesson ONE in understanding the insurgency:

Don't EVER invade a country without a legitimate justification, and/or without the clear support of the majority of the citizens of the target country.

Any questions?