The U.S. Paying More Than 80,000 In Iraq A Salary Not To Kill Or Blow Things Up

While both Bush and McCain continue to claim that the troop "surge" was somehow responsible for the roughly 80% drop in violence in Iraq, the real truth is that the U.S. is paying over 80,000 Sunni militia fighters associated with the Sahwa Councils in Iraq a salary of $10 a day not to kill Shiites or blow them up with car bombs and instead target supporters of Al Qaeda. However, among the Sunni community is where the support for Al Qaeda is, so it is highly likely that some Al Qeada members or supporters are receiving U.S. payments as well. In fact, journalist Michael Ware of CNN claims for a fact that the U.S. is paying some members of Al Qaeda not to kill or plant car bombs, etc.

The wide extent of a massive program that pays over 80,000 militia fighters not to be radicals and kill others such as Shiites cannot be understated. It is like a huge national bribe program to stem violence in Iraq and such a massive U.S. taxpayer funded program that is costing over $800,000 a day seems only to have bought a temporary peace as long as the program continues. In fact, many of these same fighters promised a strike or even return to violence if the U.S. payments would stop only recently. And the Shiite dominated government in Iraq which makes a hefty profit from oil estimated at $78 billion has been real reluctant to take over payments to these rival secular fighters.

McCain, Palin and Bush only continue to beat up the Democrats by claiming that they were wrong about the surge. But this turns out to be only a halftruth. The fact of the matter is that the surge may be one of the smaller reasons for the decline in violence in Iraq compared to the huge and expensive program of bribing militia radicals not to kill or blow things up. The biggest problem is that any reduction in violence seems to rely on these payments never ending only locking the U.S. taxpayers into another lifetime overseas financial commitment.

The really interesting thing is that it is Republicans like McCain who rail on about support for cuts to entitlements, social security and social welfare programs to American citizens, while fully supporting massive welfare giveaway programs such as paying over $800,000 a day to armed militia radicals in Iraq to not be quite so radical. I guess as long as Republicans are paying people overseas it doesn't count in their own minds. But the myth of the success of the surge is beginning to suffer under the reality of paying so many in Iraq not to do bad things like planting car bombs. For some odd reason, tens of thousands of persons in Iraq just don't seem to have the good sense not to ruin their own nation and kill their own people unless they are paid not to do so. If anything this is only a serious reminder of just the type of problem for the U.S. that Bush created and McCain supports that will hang around for years as an American problem.