Surge Success at a Rate of $10 a Day
Here's an interesting idea for dampening insurgent violence in Iraq: Pay the would-be troublemakers to temporarily join America's side and watch the surge success reports roll in. That's the tactic the U.S. military has employed with some 70,000 former insurgents, according to this NPR report.
Here’s an interesting idea for dampening insurgent violence in Iraq: Pay the would-be troublemakers to temporarily join America’s side and watch the surge success reports roll in. That’s the tactic the U.S. military has employed with some 70,000 former insurgents, according to this NPR report.
Your support is crucial…NPR:
“Petraeus seems to have concluded that it was essential to cut deals with the Sunni insurgents if he was going to succeed in reducing U.S. casualties,” Macgregor says.
The military now calls those “deals” the Concerned Local Citizens program or simply, CLCs.
It’s a somewhat abstract euphemism. The CLC program turns groups of former insurgents, including fighters for al-Qaida in Iraq, into paid, temporary allies of the U.S. military.
McCaffrey just got back from a five-day trip to Iraq where, he says, he “went to a couple of these CLCs, you know, five awkward-looking guys with their own AKs standing at a road junction with two magazines of ammunition — and they’re there as early warning to protect their families in that village. I think that that’s good.”
Creating a New Force
Some 70,000 former insurgents are now being paid $10 a day by the U.S. military. It costs about a quarter billion dollars a year.
With an uncertain future and a new administration casting doubt on press freedoms, the danger is clear: The truth is at risk.
Now is the time to give. Your tax-deductible support allows us to dig deeper, delivering fearless investigative reporting and analysis that exposes what’s really happening — without compromise.
Stand with our courageous journalists. Donate today to protect a free press, uphold democracy and unearth untold stories.
Prisoners serving their sentences as well as parolees and probationers would be allowed to vote in New Jersey under newly introduced legislation, but only if they had served in the military.
We know American politics are dysfunctional. But after a week of scandal obsession during which the nation's capital and the media virtually ignored the problems most voters care about -- jobs, incomes, growth, opportunity, education -- it's worth asking if there is something especially flawed about our democracy.
Author and feminist Naomi Wolf, whose dedication to helping protesters understand and exercise their rights got her arrested outside a private, black-tie event, is our Truthdigger of the Week.Author and feminist Naomi Wolf, whose dedication to helping protesters understand and exercise their rights, got her arrested is our Truthdigger of the Week.
Those "birthers" out there still hoping to contest President Obama's American citizenship won't have much of an ally in the newly installed House Speaker John Boehner, but he also won't question their own beliefs on that front.
Looking back at Meg Whitman's history of fulfilling public obligations as a California citizen, we can measure whether her current commitment to public service matches her record of participation in some public spheres of citizenship in the Golden State.We can only assume that Meg Whitman wants to be governor so she can provide a public service for the citizens of California.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.