The Sheikh Down
How the Pentagon bought stability in Iraq by funneling billions of taxpayer dollars to the country's next generation of strongmen.
The US military has never admitted to arming militias in Iraq—or giving anything more than $350 a month to Anbari tribesmen to fight alongside Americans against Sunni resistance groups and Al Qaeda. But reconstruction payments, sometimes handed out in shrink-wrapped bundles of $100 bills, have left plenty of extra for the sheikhs to "help themselves as far as security goes," as one Marine officer describes it, or "buy guns," as Eifan's uncle, Sheikh ... Full Story »
Posted by John Louden
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