Practice Makes Perfect

What do you do when you're trying to bring democracy to the benighted multitudes of the Third World and they stubbornly refuse to accept it? Well, you could try some friendly persuasion like bribery. Or you could try less friendly persuasion, like economic sanctions. If that doesn't work, a little tough love in the form of military invasion might be in order. But what do you do if you've tried all those things and the dirty little wogs still refuse to cooperate? Easy, send in the hit squads!

I guess the secret of the Surge's 'success' was due, in part, to "new classified U.S intelligence tactics that allowed for rapid targeting and killing of insurgent leaders." Ah, yes, assassination. We've tried it before, at least through proxies, with varied results in El Salvador, Chile and Cuba (but the wily Castro didn't fall for the old poisoned cigar bit). It turns out we also tried it before in Iraq. Back in the early sixties, the U.S. was implementing an affirmative action program in Iraq designed to unfairly promote the Baath Party. (See Juan Cole for the details). Apparently, a nifty little CIA outfit called the "Health Alteration Committee" wanted to send then Iraqi leader Abdel-Karim Kassem a poisoned monogrammed hanky. (He was attempting land reforms, always a big mistake from Washington's perspective.) I guess the plan failed and our friends in the Baath Party had to kill him the good old fashioned way, in a coup.

So, given the success of the Surge, it looks like all that assassination practice has finally payed-off, if in fact it is a success. The primary sources for that claim are the Bush Administration and John McCain, so draw your own conclusions.