Who's really egging on the so-called insurgency that bolsters the argument that our troops must stay in Iraq?
Could it be the U.S.?
Unthinkable as it seems, there's evidence that it is. Here's one example. Two Britons disguised as Arabs were arrested in Basra in September of 2005 when Iraqi police caught them driving around with a car full of explosives and bombmaking equipment. The two turned out to be members of the British Special Reconnaissance Regiment, and British tanks stormed the prison where they were held to free them. Their mission was never made clear, but their behavior and the force used to spring them suggest that some bombings in Iraq have actually been carried out or assisted by coalition agents provocateurs.
Expatriate Iraqis and credible media have claimed that, even before the Saddam Hussein era, Iraq hasn't had a long history of deadly feuding between Sunnis and Shiites. It's a matter of record that when resistance developed to the American occupation, the Bush administration pursued what's called the Salvador Option in Iraq—supporting death squads in order to foment clandestine civil war, as Reagan did in Central America. Last year filmmaker Rick Rowley was embedded with the U.S. Army in Anbar province and, partly by interviewing Shiites in a refugee camp and partly by observing and interviewing our troops, gathered evidence that American forces were aiding (including paying off) both Sunni and Shiite militias and death squads. The result: while fewer American troops were being killed, which produced a PR victory for the White House, both factions were attacking each other.
Many Americans believe the U.S. must stay in Iraq to protect Iraqis from a deadly insurgency. But what if we're spurring on the insurgency? Would our government deliberately fuel a conflict that kills Iraqis and Americans and costs the country $12 billion a month? Considering that the war keeps those billions in play for individual and corporate opportunists, and that some neocons are crying for widespread destabilization in the Middle East, the answer is quite possibly yes.
