Expats in Syria who do more than just drink at Ninar
Foremost among them, at least recently, has to be an American friend of mine whom I met in Syria (where he continues to live), as he’s just published an investigative piece for The Nation on the deadly U.S.-created Iraqi Special Operations Force, an armed force structured so as to give very few powers of oversight to the Iraqi government and many to its patron. He writes:
Although the force is officially controlled by the Iraqi government, popular perception in Baghdad is that the ISOF–the dirty brigade–is a covert, all-Iraqi branch of the US military. That reading isn’t far from the truth. The US Special Forces are still closely involved with every level of the ISOF, from planning and carrying out missions to deciding tactics and creating policy. According to Brig. Gen. Simeon Trombitas, commander of the Iraq National Counter-Terror Force Transition Team, part of the multinational command responsible for turning control of the ISOF over to the Iraqi government, the US Special Forces continue to “have advisers at every level of the chain of command.”
Shane traveled to Iraq at the beginning of the year to research this piece, and he’s one Western journalist who speaks Arabic fluently and knows the region well. His article calls into question the real meaning of an American withdrawal when such proxy forces are still left to act on their behalf.
