Vietnam’s "Phoenix" rises in Iraq

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http://www.opendemocracy.net/terrorism/article/security_briefings/140308

Top US counterinsurgency advisor looks to Vietnam for inspiration in Iraq. The EU Parliament has passed measures allowing for armed "sky marshals" inside Europe. Meanwhile, both Chad and Sudan sign a peace agreement intended to end the cross border rebel skirmishes. And much more in today's security briefings.

14 - 03 - 2008


The top US counterinsurgency advisor in Iraq, Lt. Col. David Kilcullen, advocated a plan based on the secretive "global Phoenix program" used in Vietnam. The CIA-operated "global Phoenix program" is known to have used widespread torture techniques. The plan called for the transfer of power and the training of South Vietnamese police whose brutality cost the lives of over 20,000 Vietnamese. Phoenix was primarily concerned with detaining, capturing, and eliminating citizens suspected of supporting the North Vietnamese. Kilcullen, who dismisses the widespread use of torture under US watch in Vietnam as a "popular myth", claims Phoenix was a program that advanced development and civil society. He also claims a similar plan for Iraq is necessary to stabilise Iraqi society. Kilcullen was Gen. David Petraeus' chief advisor on the 2007 US "troop surge" that sent in five brigades to Iraq.