ViceZilla’s Views

How many times have we heard “the surge is working,” the past year, or even the past month? According to some, the real reason the “surge” has worked is not so much the American Military involvement, but rather the involvement of local tribes, taking up arms against the insurgents. They are fighting with the U.S. forces to rid their towns of al-Qaida extremists. They are the local militia, hired by the ‘Americans to do their dirty work.’

It is because of these groups, called ‘Awakening Councils’ that there are uprisings against the extremists, which are touted as indications that the surge is working. So why are these men angry? Because it seems the U.S. has not paid them for their services! That’s right, the same country that pays an exorbitant amount of money to private contractors in Iraq that in return provide shitty services, is cheaping out on the one thing that it really can’t afford to cheap out on!

$10 a day is what the U.S. Government promised to pay these men. $10 a day to take up arms and fight their fight with them. $10 a day apparently is too much to ask a local Iraqi to put his life on the line to fight in George Bush’s war. If you are going to promise a man a certain amount of money to risk his life to help you, then you better damn well be prepared to pay it when the deed is done!

So with 80,000 pissed off men refusing to fight because they haven’t been paid what they were promised, how well do you think the ’surge’ is going look after that? With billions of dollars being spent on this war, you would think that it would be a higher priority for the war mongers’ to make sure their hired guns are well paid and kept happy. But apparently even $10 a day per man is too high a price to pay for their efforts.

Technorati Tags: War in Iraq, Surge, Awakening Council, al-Qaida,

Tags: War in Iraq //