ILM-MIDDLE EAST
"BUSINESS AND PARADOXES OF LIBERATION”
How much does the democratic liberation of
the United States cost?
By Ali Al Najafy
 |
| M1-A1 smashed in Baghdad |
When the US decided to invade Iraq in 2003,
it had not only planned to overthrow Saddam Hussein and seize the most
important oil fields of the fertile crescent to deliver them to the corporate
oil giants, but also to install a collaborationist government that granted it
within the corresponding legal forms, all contracts to rebuild the Armed Forces
of a "new Iraq," which would only be stocked with exclusively US-made
weapons.
When it was agreed that the military
industry companies like "General Dynamics" among a dozen more, were
the exclusive ones for the assortment of weapons and systems for the new army
after sweeping the Iraqi and that the
Pentagon had already designed in its
papers, there the invasion was launched. They were catastrophic years for the safety
and life of Iraqis common but glorious for arms deals. The "Dawa"
mafia that was placed as a government signed each and every defense contract
for an unarmed Iraq. The American businessmen gloated and just sat and watched
the demand for arms, ammunition and weapons systems that were compatible with
the new rules imposed by the "liberators".
It is true that the task of completely
destroying the Iraqi armed forces was not an achievement of the Anglo-Saxon
Coalition alone; with them there were a few very low-level Iraqi generals and
politicians who were committed to destroying or selling what was left of
Saddam's "Great Army." There were liberated routes for hundreds of
the Soviet-made "T-55" and "T-72B" tanks that made the bulk
of the "Republican Guard" to be moved at night and in view of US air
surveillance to be shipped and passed to the black market. Or dismantled for
spare parts and the sale of parts and their weapons separately, it was big
business for the arms dealers.
Thus, with scrap only stacked and parked in
large parks and open-air cemeteries outside Baghdad, Basra and Mosul, it became
necessary for the new Iraqi army to have its new armored vehicles and tanks for
combat service. Of course, a ridiculous number of tanks that do not reach 1% of
what the army had in the pre-invasion era. This must be accompanied by the need
to maintain technical advisors for driving and knowledge of the controls of an
M1 A-1 "Abrahams". Obviously, they could only be led by those troops
who, besides being Shiite loyal to the "Dawa" party, well studied by
the secret police controlled by the CIA, were a guarantee of collaboration with
Washington. In this way, the dangers of tank theft by resistance or sabotage by
infiltrators were solved.
 |
| M1-A1 capture by ISIL |
That is until, surprisingly, in 2014 the
"ISIL" appeared to cross with impunity the Iraqi borders while
supposedly the American Drones tried to stop them with guided attacks. At that
time the Iraqi army had a limited fleet of M1 A-1 tanks and had received a few
months earlier, a shipment of more than 2,500 Humvee vehicles that were
stationed in the base of mechanized troops of the city of Mosul, everything
falls in the hands of "ISIL" as a great birthday gift that cost the
US treasury 579 million dollars. And although it caused consternation that was
revealed in the faces of the Republican congressmen and those responsible for
the Pentagon's General Staff, no one ever explained how such a clumsy
collection was allowed when the intelligence reports should have warned of the
imminent danger.
For 2008 the government of Baghdad closed a
contract for the acquisition of 140 units of tank M1 A-1 "Abrams" at
a cost of 2 billion units with all its armaments and engines running. For this
the Pentagon established a contract with "General Dynamics" that
amounted to 320 million dollars to provide the order and train a select cadre
of Iraqi mechanics for maintenance. In between, many of these specimens were
captured by the "ISIL" and the most unlikely of it was that they were
able to start and drive as expert tank drivers. Were there instructors of the
"General Dynamics" in the camps of the "ISIL" teaching how
to turn on, manage and maintain your own M1 A-1?
But that does not seem to have caused much
impression among the Pentagon's high command and even less among those
responsible for the defense of the moment, who at some point came to describe
the "Daesh" as a group of monkeys running around and nothing else.
Time showed that they were more than that and much more intimate than what
could be confessed.
 |
| M1-A1 of Kataib Hesbollah Brigades of Iraq |
In spite of this, it was much more
scandalous for Washington that the M1 fell into the hands of the popular Shiite
units (which belonged to the resistance against the occupation) that were being
used by the "Daesh". Thus, when at the beginning of 2015 some
"Abrams" were seen with the flag of the Kataib Hesbollah Brigades of
Iraq and the "Al Shaabi" Popular militias advancing in the northwest
of Iraq, it made the blood of the officers in the Pentagon as General Dempsey
and Chuck Hagel that without hesitation authorized the planes of the
"Coalition against ISIL" to destroy them. It was intolerable for
"pro-Iranian" militias to take over one of the strongholds of
American industry; before it burns. But in reality that's just an excuse to scare
Baghdad from his intension to buy Russian weapons systems.
All being too abstract and difficult to
understand in view of the evidence and that`s events. It was more unbearable
for Washington that the M1 fell into the hands of the Shiite militias who were
fighting to liberate Iraq from being used with wide freedom by the
"Daesh". Illogical, do not you think? But as the "ISIL" is
now ancient history (merit in part important to Russia) and does not exist
within the map of operations, the contractors of the company "General
Dynamics" have called on the puppet regime of Baghdad to take care of
recovering the M1 "Abrams" units that are in the hands of the Shiite
popular forces, if not all of their technicians and advisers withdraw from Iraq
threatening to leave them helpless in the face of a reality that few media are
reflecting and she is that, despite that the farce of the "Daesh" was
disrupted, the operations of an autochthonous armed resistance that is active
in the northern center still persist.
For the time being, Baghdad has been in
contact with Russia in order to acquire a varied package of weapons systems and
equipment to replace the existing ones, unleashing a cataract of insults and
arguments between the Iraqi collaborationist sectors and those trying to shake
off the blackmail of Washington.
