UPDATED: SAUDI CUSTER TO THE RESCUE: “HELPING” THE HARMFUL IDIOTS IN IRAQ

a new and qualitatively much better third draft. I highly recommend you ignore the first and second.

updated: 11/1/06

I was right when I had speculated in an earlier article, “Saudi Arabia in Iraq,” that the Saudis were increasingly pumping political money into Iraq.

I had speculated that Saudi Arabia was using the Hay’at al-Ulama al-Muslimeen (The Organization of Islamic [Sunni] Scholars) (O.I.S.) as conduit for co-opting Sunni resistance groups in Iraq. In mid-October, King Abdallah met with a delegation of the Ulamas, one indication that political money is flowing to that group. The delegation was headed by Sheikh Harith al-Dhari.

Will this help U.S. troops?

The answer: No.

(Update: On or about October 29, armed men assassinated Issam al-Rawi, member of the OIS. The start of the Iran-Saudi war by proxy in Iraq?)

THE LESSON OF LEBANON--ALWAYS LEBANON

To an analyst, visits to oil-rich countries by politicians are indication that these likely are receiving money from these countries. I learned that a long time ago, writing my dissertation, when I had looked at the visits by Lebanese and Palestinian politicians to oil-rich countries. Too, I looked at the events and statements which had transpired after these visits.

Kamal Jumblatt had headed a number of times to oil-rich Libya. Libya must’ve obliged. As a consequence, the harmful idiots lost control of the Lebanese army. The Muslim officers went AWOL as they were able to secure an extra paycheck, courtesy of Mr. Jumblatt and the PLO. Some lent their services to the PLO-left-nationalist alliance. As a result, that civil war, engineered by the harmful idiots and their Lebanese agents so that the Israelis would dodge the formation of a viable Palestinian state, spiraled out of control and into a yet higher level of savagery.

Lebanon, which per capita income once had equaled that of oil-rich Kuwait, fell into civil, economic, and political chaos.

Nothing the harmful idiots touch does not bring misery to people and countries--once the foreign, but now the American. Those poor Iraqis--they didn't stand a chance, once the harmful idiots became interested in their oil. Not to mention the Palestinians.

And children of south Lebanon! These will be playing in fields full of cluster bombs covered by mud from recent rains, and uranium-tainted soil, courtesy of the harmful idiots’ agent in its barbaric assault on Lebanon’s civilians.

(Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah of Hezbollah recently revealed that the Israelis had waged their assault with the knowledge and approval of the Seniora/Hariri government--asset of the Saudis and the harmful idiots. He said that a representative(s) of this asset had contacted Hezbollah during the assault and had threatened that the Israeli assault would continue until Hezbollah disarmed and accepted multinational troops in the country--all over, not only in the south. Israel's defeat, of course, corrected the Seniora/Hariri vision, as it did the Saudi. The Saudi ambassador to Lebanon recently had a four-hour meeting with Nasrallah.)

Back to the harmful idiots' policies in one country they once controlled, Lebanon. I do this to shed light on the future harm the idiots will inflict on Iraq, if ever they gain control of it. In Lebanon, after seeing to its devastation, thanks to their mediocrity, the harmful idiots coronated one of their “assets” as President of the country. Droves of Lebanese economic hit men, “working” for the World Bank, agents of the harmful idiots, streamed into the Presidential Palace. These economic hit men did their thing: Lebanon started a process of buying weapons it could and would never use, and borrowing money to do that. The harmful idiots’ President-agent amassed a sizeable national debt ($800 million, I believe) for a country which, even after years of war, still was relatively affluent. (Did he himself make a fortune?)

Un-phased by their continued failure, and having so many “assets” on the payroll who did not give a hoot about the future of their country, the harmful idiots dispatched yet another “asset” from Saudi Arabia to become Prime Minister. This one imported into Lebanon the Saudi method of governance: In Lebanon, it’s said that he accumulated an estimated personal fortune of $15-17 billion, while sinking Lebanon into debt to the tune of nearly $40 billion. (Again, some day I’ll review Najah Wakim’s writings on the subject.) The Saudi royals had not told him to take it easy; that Lebanon was not Saudi Arabia--that it didn’t have the oil revenues of that country.

Imagine what the harmful idiots will do if they control Iraq. Lebanon's $40 billion national debt would look like pittance compared to the Grand Theft their corrupt assets would inflict on oil-rich Iraq.

The lesson to foreigners: If you’re supremely dishonest, do become assets of the harmful idiots and nothing you will do will be questioned, since so many of those to whom you will account for your Grand Theft around the globe are themselves on the harmful idiots’ payroll. You’ll be rich; fat, with a belly to end all bellies. You’ll burp and fart to the hearing of all the commoners.

The harmful idiots have a knack for accepting anyone and everyone as asset; they champion corruption wherever they see a potential.


THE ARMIES OF ARAB IRAQ

To understand Saudi Arabia’s "assistance" to the harmful idiots in Iraq, one needs to come to terms with the shape, raw, of that country’s politico-military forces. Here it is:

In Arab Iraq, there are three main armies:

(1) The American Army. It includes the troops, the Pentagon’s motley of global mercenaries, and the Iraqi ancillaries. These ancillaries are brigades which respond to orders by U.S. commanders--mercenaries in their own country.

(2) The Sunni Army. It includes the resistance troops from among which Saudi Arabia is trying to co-opt.

(3) The Mahdi Army. It now owns the Shiite Street in Iraq.

(I will not cover the fourth army, the Kurdish. For the purpose of this topic, it doesn’t figure as prominently.)

THE AMERICAN ARMY AND ITS IRAQI ANCILLARIES

The assassination, on or about mid-October, of Salam al-Maamouri, Commander of the Force of the Spider, a rapid deployment force, revealed the following:

That any Iraqi units with the capability of engaging in true fighting respond not to the government of Iraq but to the United States. The Spider Force, trained and armed by the Americans, seemed to be an extension of that occupation. It was revealed specifically that Maamouri received orders from U.S. commanders, and not from the Iraqi government or any of its institutions. In addition, it was revealed that the U.S. occupation forces had provided the Spider Force much better weapons than they did those forces that responded to the government. Too, many of the 900-strong force were old police; one therefore may conclude that they were once Baathists, mostly Sunni.

That the better forces were not under the control of the Iraqi government, but of the U.S., was corroborated by Prime Minister Maliki. In his response to American criticism, on or about October 26, Mr. Maliki in frustration revealed that he had no control whatsoever over his armed forces and police; that these responded to orders by U.S. commanders. His words: I can’t move a single brigade without the approval if the Alliance--read: the Americans.

At the risk of exaggerating, to complete the picture, it looks as if the United States is forming in Iraq an army that would help it in the eventual face-off with Iran. In other words, U.S. commanders had given up on Iraqi governments, all governments, and have been running their own show in Iraq.

The assassination of Maamouri was followed by the transfer of General Adnan Thabit, Commander of the Security Preservation Force at the Ministry of the Interior, out of active duty and into administrative. Ditto for Rashid Flayeh. Thabit, a general under Saddam Hussein, was known to be an associate of the CIA’s Ayad Allawi, and responded to orders by U.S. occupation forces. Flayeh probably fell in the same box. It’s rumored that Thabit had commanded 10,000 troops, at the service of the U.S. occupier, and that another five like troop gatherings had existed and responded (and still do) directly to the American occupier. A estimated total of 60,000 troops. The transfer of these generals to administrative duties (symbolic and meaningless, really) may have been in response to complaints by the Maliki government about its helplessness in controlling the Amereican ancillary Iraqi armies.


It seemed therefore that the U.S. occupation has monopolized the state’s armed forces, police and defense. Factoring in the 50,000 global mercenaries or so, contractors with the Pentagon, the U.S. therefore owned an army that dwarfed anything the puppet state (Maliki’s) would ever dream of having.

Thus, in essence, attacks by the resistance (Sunni or Shiite) on Iraqi troops are one-and-the-same as attacks on U.S. troops, since the Iraqi troops of relevance are ancillaries to the U.S. armed forces and the Pentagon-hired foreign mercenaries. The resistance wonders: Why join an American army when you can be true to your community and join us? The answer, of course, is obvious. We join the American ancillary force in Iraq, mercenaries in our own land, to make a living. Joining the resistance could hardly bring in the income the U.S. taxpayer can pay.

THE SHIITE ARMY

British forces had estimated that there was a force of around 120,000 armed men (the Facilities’ Protection Force–FPF) which operated out of the Interior Ministry, but was not under the control of that ministry. Add to that the estimated 30,000 armed men, alleged guards of the Ministry, who too operated outside of that Ministry’s control.

These 150,000 armed men seemed to move in and out of the private militias, the Mahdi Army primarily.

The Mahdi Army once had been estimated at 100,000 armed men--not counting those who moved in and out. It’s safe to assume that Iran provides some of the funding for these, as does Saudi Arabia. (See previous article, “Saudi Arabia in Iraq.”) Other funding probably comes from the state, through jobs held by members of the Mahdi, and revenues from private sales of oil.

SCIRI’s Bader Brigade, while Shiite, seemed to have been bought out totally by the U.S. occupier. It had come from Iran with around 15,000 men, but ballooned larger with U.S. and Iraqi government money. But all observers seem to agree that Bader stands no chance against Mahdi.

THE SUNNI ARMY: SAUDI CUSTER TO BUY IT OFF, AND OUT.

I have covered the Sunni Army (the resistance) in a couple of earlier articles, the latest being “Saudi Arabia in Iraq.” This Army is the focus of this article in that Saudi Custer has come to assist the harmful idiots in dividing it, to weaken it.

The Saudis and the American occupier have been for a good while, wishfully, trying to split the Sunni resistance. Their effort has focused on the clans and tribes. They seem not to be mindful that the sons and daughters of these, not the foreigners, fill the ranks of the resistance. Accordingly, the Saudis and the harmful idiots have been trying to divide-and-rule the Sunni resistance.

In their attempt to aid the harmful idiots, the Saudis have been trying to co-opt the less intransigent part of the resistance. Clueless about history, the Saudis seem to be championing a return of the Baath, of the Saddam Hussein people. To turn the clock back.

The main vehicle for Saudi influence seems to be the Organization of Islamic Scholars (O.I.S.).

In an earlier article (“Saudi Arabia in Iraq”) I had covered the harmful idiots’ attempts at piercing through the unity wall of the Sunni resistance. In this, they had Jordanian assistance. Now they’ve added Saudi money to their arsenal.

I had speculated that the Saudis were funding the O.I.S. This speculation was analytically confirmed after the posting of the article by the visit of a delegation of these to Saudi Arabia and their meeting with King Abdallah.

The Sunni establishment as we now know it (e.g., Islamic Ulamas, Islamic Party), which had lied dormant under the secular government of Saddam Hussein, and which generally was supportive of his rule, came to life as a result of the American invasion and occupation. The OIS, the Islamic Party... have become the self-appointed spokesman of the Arab Sunni community.


WILL THE SAUDIS SUCCEED IN DIVIDING THE ARAB SUNNI ARMY?

The relevant question: How powerful is this establishment, compared to the many resistance groups that had emerged since the invasion? And can this establishment, using Saudi money, co-opt the resistance into some sort of peace with the Americans so that these can focus on Iran and Syria?

Majlis Shura al-Mujahideen, the chief rival to the establishment, is not the foreign element the harmful idiots would like us to believe. It seems to be predominately Iraqi. I suspect that it is made up of the younger generation, the same generation that came close to grabbing power in Algeria but was ruthlessly suppressed by the Algerian Old Guard.

In Iraq, these young stand a better chance than the Algerian, mainly because of the occupation and the fear that the sectarian divide engenders.

There’s no question that the harmful idiots, with help from Saudi money, are pushing on two fronts:

(1) They are trying to bring together the tribes/clans within the Sunni camp, to oppose the more intransigent part of the resistance--al Qaeda, for instance; and

(2) They are trying to evolve tribes-to-tribes solidarity–-Shiite tribes to Sunni tribes, and Sunni to Shiite. Consider the gathering on or about October 10 of tribes in Karbala--Shiite--which expressed their opposition to federalism, a Sunni nightmare. Consider, too, the Shiite clans’ expression of solidarity with the clans of Anbar in their effort to contain al Qaeda. (This expression reveals that the Karbala gathering was the work of the harmful idiots.)

The new Sunni establishment, the OIS-Islamic Party establishment, seems to have sway over the following resistance groups:


The Islamic Army
The Phalanges of the Revolution of the Twentieth
The Army of the Mujahideen
The General Command of the Armed Forces

On or about October 16, these groups criticized the Shura Council’s (al Qaeda) declaration of an Islamic Emirate. They issued their criticism under the guise that such would weaken the cause of the fight against the occupation.

WISHFUL THINKING: TURN THE CLOCK BACK TO THE DAYS OF THE OLD BAATH.

One representative of the Islamic Army asserted that his Army still was attempting to open the doors of negotiations with the Americans, but that all troops would have to withdraw, especially the American. He added that the U.S. occupier would have to release all Iraqi and Arab detainees, and that the U.S. would have to recognize the resistance as representing the Iraqi people. He said that the following groups shared in these demands:

The Islamic Army
Army of the Murabiteen
Army of the Rashideen
The Phalanges of the Revolution of the Twentieth.

The same spokesman blamed Al Qaeda and Ansar al-Sunna for the car bombings against Shiites. Strangely (to anyone with a historic sense), he demanded the release of Saddam Hussein. In addition, he called for all to declare their allegiance to Saddam’s deputy, Izzat al-Din Ibrahim al-Douri (Abu Ahmad.)

It's possible (even likely) that these statements by the Islamic Army spokesman were coordinated with the harmful idiots. Why? To provide a way out for these from the total alienation the Arab Sunnis feel towards them and the occupation.

This (attempted) revival of the Baath was reinforced when, around the same time, 500 people representing the Baath and the tribes attended a gathering about fifteen miles south of Kirkuk. The gathering seemed to be an attempt at regaining a place for Saddam Hussein in Iraqi public life, as a way (too late) for the harmful idiots to score points with the Arab Sunnis. Once again, it looked as if there was a new engine revving within the Sunni community, one which wanted to return the clock to the pre-invasion era. Neither Syria nor Iran would be interested in this. Once again, therefore, it looked like our harmful idiots, pumping Saudi money into the OIS and such resistance groups as the Islamic Army, were behind the event. Two birds with one stone: To divide/weaken the Sunni resistance, and to score (symbolic) points with the Arab Sunnis.

You weaken the Sunni Army and, by definition, your own--the American Army (the armed forces, the Pentagon mercenaries, and the Iraqi ancillaries)--would become more powerful.

The policy of bringing the old Baath back to life became evident yet again when we learned on or about October 26 that the Sunni camp, minus the Majlis Shura (al Qaeda and associated groups), was trying to unite under the command of a Saddam man, his once deputy Izzat al-Din Ibrahim al-Douri. The groups included the OIS, the General Command of the Armed Forces, the Islamic Army, the Phalanges of the Revolution of the Twentieth, the Army of the Rashideen , and some personalities (e.g., Ayatollah al-Azmi al-Sayyed Ahmad al-Hasni al-Baghdadi, the Iraqi National Coalition, some Communists. The finger for this attempt pointed to the Saudis, as meeting took place soon after the visit of the Ulamas to Saudis Arabia.

That the Saudis were coordinating with the harmful idiots in Iraq became more apparent when Sheikh Harith al-Dhari (OIS), on or about October 16, expressed in Saudi Arabia his group’s opposition to a federal Iraq. That was followed by the Saudi Minister of Culture and Information expressing the same, in Saudi Arabia’s name. And practivcally on the same day, on or about October 17, President Bush expressed the same.

An American-Saudi charm offensive towards the Sunnis!

What’s going on?

The short answer: The harmful idiots, with the Saudis’ help, are trying to create a supportive Arab Sunni constituency in Iraq, and to create divisions among the Sunni resistance--the Arab Sunni Army. If this army became weaker, then the army run by the U.S.--see above--by definition would become stronger.


THE OBSTACLES TO DIVIDING THE ARAB SUNNI ARMY

But the attempt to splinter and weaken the Sunni resistance faces huge obstacles:

(1) the fear the various groups have of intra-fighting. The Phalanges of the Revolution of the Twentieth, for example, did not join with the Islamic Army in the latter’s negotiations with the Americans in Amman, revealed on or about October 20. Their reluctance to participate could very well be an expression of their concern about splintering the Sunni camp. Note, too, for instance, the Islamic Army’s reluctance on or about October 23, to criticize the Majlis Shura’s (al-Qaeda) declaration of the Islamic Imarah, which Mosul had joined on that same date. The Islamic Army responded by saying that it took exception to that movement, nothing more.

(2) The harmful idiots’ and the Saudis’ attempt to splinter the Arab Sunni resistance faces yet another obstacle: the Kurds’ de facto secession in the north, made possible by the harmful idiots over a couple of decades. If you’ve wondered why the civil war has been inching its way north (a phenomenon which this newsletter had predicted a good while ago), it's because the Mahdi Army and some among the Sunnis are trying to create a common goal in fighting for the unity of Iraq by fighting off Kurdish secession.

(3) Another huge obstacle is the memory all Arab Sunnis have: That Saudi Arabia is the same treacherous brother-country which stabbed twice in the back the Iraqi Sunnis by colluding with the harmful idiots.

(4) Another obstcale: The potential for a united Iraq away from the Saudis and their silliness is truly impressive: a country that would dwarf the harmful idiots' silly protectorates in its fair distribution of wealth--an example for all to emulate. That's Iraqi nationalism. The Saudi example in Lebanon has shown all that assets like the Saudis' and the harmful idiots' would pillage the common resources, shamelessly, as the greed of these assets knows no end---absolutely none.


(5) Not to mention that this Saudi-mediated rapprochement between the Sunnis and the occupation forces runs head on into the threat of the Shiites taking over the mantle of resistance, with the Mahdi Army in the forefront The Iraqi Sunni Street, while gaining a respite from a renewed Shiite insurgency, would risk losing a part of their Army to an alliance with the Shiites. If the battles rage on long enough, this run-away part of the Sunni Army should gain increasing support among he Sunnis and be the recipient of larger and larger numbers of Sunni recruits. The Sunni establishment (e.g., the OIS and the Islamic Army) would become increasingly marginal, fattened by Saudi money, but unable to hold on to any real power.

THE REAL DANGER OF THE MAHDI ARMY TO THE INFANTILE STRATEGY OF THE HARMFUL IDIOTS

Hence the practical siege by the American occupier and its Iraqi-controlled ancillary army of the Mahdi and its commanders. By effecting the siege, the American occupier aims for the following:

(1) Stop Mahdi’s killings of Sunnis, the retaliation by these, and the concomitant population transfers. The occupying army is doing this not out of the goodness of its heart. Sectarian killings and retaliatory massacres place a terrific strain on the Iraqi troops (Sunni and Shiite) in the American Army--the ancillary forces–-those troops that are beholden to the United States and not to the insignificant government of Maliki. Mahdi likely intends these massacres and it intends the psychological strain these create in the very soul of the Shiites and Sunnis within the ancillary/mercenary troops of the American Army.

Mahdi is doing exactly what the Sunni establishment once had done: Stoke a civil war (currently : make it worse) to fail the new rapprochement between the U.S. and the Sunnis. Just as the Sunni establishment had ignited a civil war to fail the American occupation, which had meant to castrate each and every Arab male, in particular the Sunni, the Shiites now are doing the same.

Weakening the American Army (read: U.S. troops, the global mercenaries, and their Iraqi mercenary/ancillary troops) by definition strengthens the alternative Mahdi Army.

(2) Prevent the Mahdi Army from waging a full-scale war against the occupier, as it did twice before. Such war would see the Shiite population of Iraq join Mahdi in droves, including men who the U.S. had bought out (with actual dollars) within the Bader Brigade and others.

NULLIFYING THE EFFECT OF SAUDI MONEY: THE SUNNI ISLAMISTS AND THE MAHDI SADRISTS JOIN FORCES IN THE NORTH.

On or about October 13, three Sadrists were killed in Kirkuk. Another three were killed the day after. And two U.S. soldiers died a couple of days later, in Kirkuk. On October 17 or thereabout, two suicide bombers exploded themselves in Kirkuk. (Suicide bombing is more typical of the Sunni Islamist/al Qaeda camp than the Sadrist.) Accordingly , one is justified to conclude that the war in Kirkuk was being waged by a coalition of Sunni Islamists and Sadrists–-the Islamic front Iran and Syria had been praying for. On or about October 20, a total of six suicide bombings took place in Mosul, a majority Arab Sunni town, targeting Iraqi police and U.S. troops.

The hope of the pro-Iran and Syria camps in the north probably is to neutralize the Saudi money-pumping initiative within the Sunni camp. Along with the general reluctance to initiate intra-Sunni fighting and weaken the hitherto solid Sunni Army, taking the war north promises to nullify the effect of the Saudi money, pumped into the pockets of the less intransigent (and probably older) Sunni leaders.

WILL SAUDI CUSTER SUCCEED?










Did Custer?