The Lying Liars Can't Keep Their Lies Straight

posted by Bill Arnett @ 10:54 AM Permalink

Just this past Saturday I wrote a post here, titled "Huh? Aren't the Lies Just Becoming Idiotic Now?" where I cited two different government positions totally opposing one another regarding the arming of insurgeants.

One article says we do, the next just 11 days later vehemently denies giving insurgents weapons. The chief quotes of the two articles was these:

First, from Raw Story:

With the four-month-old increase in American troops showing only modest success in curbing insurgent attacks, American commanders are turning to another strategy that they acknowledge is fraught with risk: arming Sunni Arab groups that have promised to fight militants linked with Al Qaeda who have been their allies in the past.

American commanders say they have successfully tested the strategy in Anbar Province west of Baghdad and have held talks with Sunni groups in at least four areas of central and north-central Iraq where the insurgency has been strong.

The statement that, "American commanders say they have successfully tested the strategy in Anbar Province," sounds pretty dispositive on the matter of arming insurgents: We did and have been doing it since before the reports of it showed up in the press around June 11, 2007.

Now, also from Raw Story/AFP just 11 days later:

The number two US military commander in Iraq on Friday denied that US forces were arming insurgents willing to fight forces of the Al-Qaeda network, but said the military was "reaching out."

"I want to make one thing very clear: we are not arming these groups," Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno told reporters via teleconference from Baghdad.

However, Odierno did admit providing 10 assault rifles to a security detail for one mayor he said was being "threatened."

"The best I can tell, we armed 10 security detachment personnel for a mayor in one town because he was being threatened. And so we did give him 10 AK-47s."
[…]
"Beyond that, we have not given weapons to any insurgent groups. They have plenty of weapons," Odierno said. "I want those weapons to be used against Al-Qaeda and not against coalition forces or Iraqi security forces."

Now we have yet again another report that conflicts with Odierno's assessment and seemingly proves we ARE arming insurgents after all.

See this from Americablog citing Rob Farley's really good piece on this:

…The US is currently enrolling in Iraqi police and military units tribesmen who were, ten months ago, part of the insurgency. The loyalty of such individuals can hardly be taken for granted; the tribal elite may decide, six months from now, that they are no longer pleased with the US and shift against us.

Even if the tribal elites remain loyal, the alliance poses a larger problem for basic US war aims. The alliance with these tribes serves, necessarily, to strengthen them as political units . . . invariably weaken[ing] the central government. As the tribes are also among the least progressive and least interested in democracy of any Iraqi political constituencies, strengthening them also helps undercut efforts towards democratization.

We are, we aren't, we are again. the only truth that can be discerned from all these conflicting reports is that General Odierno, without doubt, is lying, either upon orders or on his own initiative, doesn't know what is going on (which is even worse), or both.

Damn fools couldn't make up their minds if they had one.

Labels: flip-flops, foreign policy, GWOT, propaganda