The "Salvador Option" for Iraq
By Douglas Farah
Among those of us actively involved in covering the almost-forgotten Central American conflict, as well as policy makers and military officials, there has been a lot of buzz and debate over a recent Newsweek web exclusive saying the Pentagon was considering the "Salvador option" to improve the military situation in Iraq. The report says that the option "dates back to a still-secret strategy in the Reagan administration's battle against the leftist guerrilla insurgency in El Salvdador in the early 1980s. Then, faced with a losing war against Salvadoran rebels, the U.S. government funded or supported 'nationalist forces' that allegedly included so-called death squads directed to hunt down and kill rebel leaders and sympathizers."
Here is my two cents worth: If such a strategy were underway, it would be one of the biggest in the long line of mistakes the United States has made in Iraq. But it is a big if. The sources and/or authors of the story show a rather shocking lack of knowledge of El Salvador and the historic context of the work of the Salvadoran death squads. For the rest of this blog, go here
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://counterterrorismblog.org/mt/pings.cgi/1188
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The "Salvador Option" for Iraq:
» The experts weigh in. from Why are all the good names gone...?
Although I've blogged on both the Newsweek "Salvador Option" (here) and Seymour Hersh's New Yorker article (here), neither of my efforts match those being produced by some notable experts in their fields. [Read More]
