Several recent news items bolster my argument.
1. The captors of non-uniformed foreigners in Iraq appear to distinguish between paramilitary combatants and true civilians.
1a. The "no longer being a captive" of Thomas Hamill. Perhaps he is just a truck driver. The sad truth is that corporate media cannot be trusted to make that determination.
2b. The disclosure that the four Italian captives had been heavily armed hours prior to their capture, until they were disarmed by US forces. Why were they disarmed? Details are sketchy. Know this: Fabrizio Quattrocchi, the captive who was executed, was packing a lot of heat for a baker. No, he wasn't even a baker. At minimum, to describe his use of deadly weapons, one could say he was a "security guard," although the actual situation of his employment remains unclear. (See my earlier post on Quattrocchi's captors, the
Green Battalion).
2. The Assassination of intellectuals (See this post from lbn,
Death to those who dare to speak out). Well, that's exactly the kind of thing paramilitary death squads do. Sometimes you will see people defend the activities of security guards, mercenaries and even assassins becuase, it will be said, they perform a useful military function. Killing people who express their thoughts also meets military objectives. That doesn't make it valid, decent, or acceptable s.o.p. It's a specious argument. It leads away from the truth, which is that intellectuals in Iraq are being terrorized by as yet unidentified paramilitary forces.
As the facade on the occupation crumbles, it becomes clear that the US is using paramilitary death squads to meet some of its objectives in Iraq, and that the decision to deploy these resources is not emerging organically from the anarchic unrest and "untidyness" of a free people, but is being visited upon the people of Iraq with great violence and malice aforethought.
In all probablity you will not read in the Paper of Record that
Paramilitary Death Squads Murder Another Shiite Cleric, Negroponte Lies. That, however, will accurately describe what will happen, should everything unfold according to plan.
On Edit: Typo