ANALYSIS: Is the 'Salvador option' now fully operational in Iraq?

From uruknet

With reports of the operations of Shiite death squads appearing more frequently in the mainstream press, this article bears rereading. -- Published last June, Max Fuller presents evidence gathered as of then tending toward the conclusion that, far from being an undesired phenomenon characteristic of a situation spinning out of U.S. control, the use of terroristic methods by Shiites against Sunnis is in fact being carried out by those trained by U.S. forces as part of a counter-insurgency campaign organized by Americans. -- In January, Newsweek published an article on this so-called "Salvador option." -- Fuller, who is a member of the Columbia Solidarity Campaign in Britain, argues that Columbia offers a better model than either Vietnam or El Salvador for what is taking place at present in Iraq: "In many ways it is contemporary Colombia that offers the closest analogy: not for the disposition of U.S. forces, but because here the same process of asset-stripping, impoverishment, and conquistador-like plundering is both deeply entrenched and ongoing. It is here that is to be found that clearest pattern for the assaults on academics, independent trade unionists, and peasant organizations that will increasingly characterize Iraq for those prepared to look beyond the fireworks." ...