So...The US is gonna hire Saddam's henchmen

[chiburb]

To provide security for US troops. (Heard on CBS Morning News/Radio, no link.)

Do I have this right?:

With no WMDs or imminent threat, the storyline changed to "we got rid of brutal tryant and his henchmen". Now that things aren't going exactly "rose petals", we're gonna use those very henchmen (and their particular skill set) to terrorize Iraqis into compliance? To make them afraid to attack American forces?

Doesn't that remove the very last excuse they had for this invasion? Should this be shouted from the rooftops? Or am I missing something...

My head is spinning...

[loudnclear]

1. People will do whatever it take to survive.

We have become the very evil we say we abhor.

[charlie]

2. We've been quietly recruiting Mukhabarat

Saddam's KGB/CIA, for months. A number of them have been put in Chalabi's charge. It's a new cycle of the same old story -- we'll be dealing with the fallout from the mess we're creating today in 10 years.

[Aidoneus]

3. not "is gonna", but rather "has for months been"

The irony is that Saddam's Mukhabarat is well skilled in confronting the same diverse popular resistance facing the occupation forces now. Contary to duckspeakers in the mintru, there will be much collaboration between the "remnants of the old regime" and the criminal occupation forces & their quisling lackeys, for their outlooks and opponents appear to overlap greatly.

[Scott Lee]

4. Why buck a historical habit?

We recruited and hired old Nazis after WWII.

Amazing isn't it? We jail or kill leftist leaders, but provide rightist ones with a new office and benefits package.