Dahr Jamail: How the Bush Admin's Iraq Strategy Fueled a Sectarian War That Continues Today
Watch the full interview with Dahr Jamail on Democracy Now! at http://owl.li/jfIjV. Al Jazeera investigative journalist Dahr Jamail tells Democracy Now! the sectarian violence plaguing Iraq today is the "direct result" of the George W. Bush administration policy after the invasion 10 years ago. "It was only after the occupation began and these strategies were applied by the Bush administration that we saw the violence, the purging in the mixed neighborhoods, that continues to this day," Jamail says. "Sectarianism and basically turning Iraqis against one another -- this is a direct result of the Bush administration policy." Check out the Democracy Now! Interactive Timeline of the Iraq War at http://bit.ly/10cpRVT NERMEEN SHAIKH: Dahr Jamail, a lot of people say that what's going on in Iraq now is not so much the result of the U.S. invasion but rather sectarian war between Sunnis and Shias. Could you respond to that? Do you agree? DAHR JAMAIL: I don't agree. I think all of this is a direct result of—either direct or indirectly a result of the U.S. invasion and occupation and the strategy applied. I mean, we saw something come out just last week in a joint investigation of BBC Arabic and The Guardian, which gave hard evidence, insider evidence, of the machinations of the U.S. using retired Lieutenant Colonel James Steele, infamous during the Reagan administration of orchestrating so many of the death squads in Central America along with Negroponte. Well, Negroponte happened to be the U.S. ambassador to Iraq for some of the occupation and, of course, brought in his old buddy James Steele to set up the same types of tactics, the detentions, the types of torture techniques that we're seeing rampant across today—across Iraq today, the blatant attempts to foment sectarian violence, sort of a divide-and-conquer policy. Even Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld under Bush, back around 2006, 2007, referred to kind of casually using the "Salvador Option" in Iraq, and that's precisely what he was describing. So, the sectarianism fomented where, you know, we don't have a natural sectarianism or animosities between the sects in Iraq, but it was only after the occupation began and these strategies were applied by the Bush administration that we saw the violence, the purging in the mixed neighborhoods, that continues to this day, and the sectarianism, and basically turning Iraqis against one another very effectively. And this is a direct result of the Bush administration policy, as well as bringing in Maliki as prime minister himself. We have to remember that when neoconservative Zalmay Khalilzad was the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Maliki was basically the guy that the U.S. government and Iran could agree with as having as prime minister. And so, there wasn't a whole lot of democracy involved in that whatsoever. I say, tongue in cheek, he was basically appointed by Zalmay Khalilzad and agreed upon by the powers that be in Iran, and he of course remains prime minister to this day despite—we've had elections that clearly he has not won, yet he remains in power. Read the complete transcript and see more reports about the Iraq War at http://owl.li/jdV0g. Democracy Now!, is an independent global news hour that airs weekdays on 1,100+ TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. FOLLOW DEMOCRACY NOW! ONLINE: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/democracynow Twitter: @democracynow Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/democracynow Listen on SoundCloud: http://www.soundcloud.com/democracynow Daily Email News Digest: http://www.democracynow.org/subscribe
- published: 20 Mar 2013
- views: 915
http://wn.com/Dahr_Jamail_How_the_Bush_Admin's_Iraq_Strategy_Fueled_a_Sectarian_War_That_Continues_Today Watch the full interview with Dahr Jamail on Democracy Now! at http://owl.li/jfIjV. Al Jazeera investigative journalist Dahr Jamail tells Democracy Now! the sectarian violence plaguing Iraq today is the "direct result" of the George W. Bush administration policy after the invasion 10 years ago. "It was only after the occupation began and these strategies were applied by the Bush administration that we saw the violence, the purging in the mixed neighborhoods, that continues to this day," Jamail says. "Sectarianism and basically turning Iraqis against one another -- this is a direct result of the Bush administration policy." Check out the Democracy Now! Interactive Timeline of the Iraq War at http://bit.ly/10cpRVT NERMEEN SHAIKH: Dahr Jamail, a lot of people say that what's going on in Iraq now is not so much the result of the U.S. invasion but rather sectarian war between Sunnis and Shias. Could you respond to that? Do you agree? DAHR JAMAIL: I don't agree. I think all of this is a direct result of—either direct or indirectly a result of the U.S. invasion and occupation and the strategy applied. I mean, we saw something come out just last week in a joint investigation of BBC Arabic and The Guardian, which gave hard evidence, insider evidence, of the machinations of the U.S. using retired Lieutenant Colonel James Steele, infamous during the Reagan administration of orchestrating so many of the death squads in Central America along with Negroponte. Well, Negroponte happened to be the U.S. ambassador to Iraq for some of the occupation and, of course, brought in his old buddy James Steele to set up the same types of tactics, the detentions, the types of torture techniques that we're seeing rampant across today—across Iraq today, the blatant attempts to foment sectarian violence, sort of a divide-and-conquer policy. Even Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld under Bush, back around 2006, 2007, referred to kind of casually using the "Salvador Option" in Iraq, and that's precisely what he was describing. So, the sectarianism fomented where, you know, we don't have a natural sectarianism or animosities between the sects in Iraq, but it was only after the occupation began and these strategies were applied by the Bush administration that we saw the violence, the purging in the mixed neighborhoods, that continues to this day, and the sectarianism, and basically turning Iraqis against one another very effectively. And this is a direct result of the Bush administration policy, as well as bringing in Maliki as prime minister himself. We have to remember that when neoconservative Zalmay Khalilzad was the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Maliki was basically the guy that the U.S. government and Iran could agree with as having as prime minister. And so, there wasn't a whole lot of democracy involved in that whatsoever. I say, tongue in cheek, he was basically appointed by Zalmay Khalilzad and agreed upon by the powers that be in Iran, and he of course remains prime minister to this day despite—we've had elections that clearly he has not won, yet he remains in power. Read the complete transcript and see more reports about the Iraq War at http://owl.li/jdV0g. Democracy Now!, is an independent global news hour that airs weekdays on 1,100+ TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. FOLLOW DEMOCRACY NOW! ONLINE: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/democracynow Twitter: @democracynow Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/democracynow Listen on SoundCloud: http://www.soundcloud.com/democracynow Daily Email News Digest: http://www.democracynow.org/subscribe
- published: 20 Mar 2013
- views: 915