MILITARY

A Smarter Way to Fight

He was the brains behind 'Charlie Wilson's War.' Now his tactics are hot, from Pakistan to Colombia.

By Michael Hirsh | NEWSWEEK

Published Jul 12, 2008

From the magazine issue dated Jul 21, 2008

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Discuss

Posted By: Trooper101st @ 08/03/2008 11:22:05 AM

Comment: I think in some cases its like this: "He is a S.O.B...but he's our S.O.B......so you can whine and moan about ties to paramilitary groups and right wing death sqauds, but this is wat it is, the US looking out for its own interests. How many people would shed tears if a guy like Chavez took a bullet? He is a troublemaker and a s.o.b., and he's not OUR S.O.B., he's aligning himself and his country with the Soviets....ummm, I mean Russians. Tell me that Putin has good intentions towards the US. Tell me he is not a dictator. You would be wrong on both counts.
Posted By: Dollared @ 07/21/2008 2:13:30 PM

Comment: @barchetta,

Those ties do exist, they are the subject of dramatic disclosures in the Colombian newspapers on a nearly daily basis. It is a fact that the disclosure of these illegal contacts have forced the resignations of members of the Uribe government and members of Uribe's party have resigned from the legislature in disgrace.

And yes, there are similarities between what happened in El Salvador and what is happening in Colombia. In both cases the US government, headed by Republicans, has aligned itself with the wealthy classes in a Latin American country, trained their military in counter-insurgency, and provided hundreds of millions of dollars in arms, contractor services (mercenaries) and intelligence. And then these Latin American militaries have aligned with shadowy right wing groups in their own countries and committed heinous acts of oppression and mass murder in the course of suppressing both real revolutionaries and legitimate union movements and liberal political activists, all with substantial assistance from US military men, mercenaries, and right wing politicians.

Only after Reagan left power in the US could peace be achieved in El Salvador. Peace in Colombia is doubtful at any rate - the country has had violent insurgencies for over 100 years of its existence, and millions have been killed.

But if you think we should keep supporting these guys, go ahead. Just don't use my tax dollars. Just think if we had been smart enough to stay out of Viet Nam and Iraq. There would be no national debt.....
Posted By: Dollared @ 07/18/2008 5:48:07 PM

Comment: Michael Hirsch, this is advocacy journalism. This sounds like a wonderful success story. Now, do we want to talk about 1) the Colombian government's many ties to the AUC paramilitaries, who have killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians, and 2) Sepp's involvement in El Salvador? 70,000 Civilians died, more than 1 out of every 100 citizens of El Salvador, most of them at the hands of the army that Sepp trained.

"The template for Iraq today is not Vietnam, to which it has often been compared, but El Salvador, where a right-wing government backed by the United States fought a leftist insurgency in a 12-year war beginning in 1980. The cost was high -- more than 70,000 people were killed, most of them civilians, in a country with a population of just six million. Most of the killing and torturing was done by the army and the right-wing death squads affiliated with it. According to an Amnesty International report in 2001, violations committed by the army and its associated paramilitaries included ''extrajudicial executions, other unlawful killings, 'disappearances' and torture. . . . Whole villages were targeted by the armed forces and their inhabitants massacred.'' As part of President Reagan's policy of supporting anti-Communist forces, hundreds of millions of dollars in United States aid was funneled to the Salvadoran Army, and a team of 55 Special Forces advisers, led for several years by Jim Steele, trained front-line battalions that were accused of significant human rights abuses. "
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/magazine/01ARMY.html?pagewanted=print&position=>

Is this what you advocate, Mr. Hirsch? Because by not mentioning the ambibuities inherent in Mr. Sepp's contributions, you appear to advocate death squads and mass murder.
- Posted By: Barchetta @ 07/21/2008 12:45:49
  
  Comment: It is a wonderful success story for Colombians. And no, we do not want to talk about alleged ties of the Colombian government with paramilitaries because we have talked about this enough and despite all the talk, nothing is true, they just do not exist. An then, is this comment about El Salvador, or about Colombia. Because there is a tendency of some left-wing american and european commentators to treat all the third world contries and conflicts as if they are the same. They are not and it is clear that this particular commentator has no clue about Colombia or its particular situation.
Posted By: Dollared @ 07/18/2008 5:19:02 PM

Comment: Wow, then I guess this guy we're writing about is the same guy who was involved in the war crimes that El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras committed in the 1980s with US help, resulting in the deaths of literally hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.

But we'd have to do some research to find that out, wouldn't we? And Newsweek reporters don't do research if it interferes with their simplistic story line, do they?
Posted By: Klongloff @ 07/16/2008 2:48:31 PM

Comment: This is hagiography, not journalism. Read carefully through this article and try to find any tactic that is new or uniquely American, much less that is the sole creation of Vicker's or Sepp's. I mean no disrespect to those guys or the US military, the fault lies with the journalist and editors. Infiltration, disguises and deception are new tactics? Please. As far as electronic surveillance of communications, I think those have been around for awhile too.
Posted By: bigtimemamma @ 07/14/2008 7:49:16 PM

Comment: Non invasive assistance to Colombia is the best form of fighting drugs AND illegal immigrants from entering this country. No American lives are at stake and improving conditions in third world countries stop people from leaving everything they love behind in search for better opportunities elsewhere. Colombia is not Afghanistan so stop trying to compare apples to oranges.

Last I heard the border was not unprotected! The trillion plus is spent on the war in Iraq which is not anywhere near Colombia. Lastly, treating "non-violent" drug users as medically needed will cost more than said trillion and you provide no "suggestions" for the violent ones, shall we hang them at the US/Mexico wall?? Juggernimrod99, you are a silly boy.

Dr. David Leffler, nice comment; only thing is you misspelled Colombia. (Columbia, District of, is in the USA)
Posted By: Juggergrimrod99 @ 07/14/2008 7:08:18 PM

Comment: We should stop interfering in all foreign nations and withdraw our military from all our overseas bases unless we are actively involved in an active conflict like Afghanistan. We have absolutely no business doing anything in Colombia. It is utterly insane to spend upwards of 1 trillion dollars a year on "defense" while our southern border with mexico is completely unprotected. Lastly we should stop the "War of Drugs" which is completely totally futile. Non-violent drug users should be treated as having a medical condition.
Posted By: Dr. David Leffler @ 07/14/2008 3:32:06 PM

Comment: I would interpret this paragraph taken from the Newsweek article as sign that the fully-operational Invincible Defense Technology System in Columbia is working:

"But what happened afterward-which hasn't been widely reported-was almost as remarkable, according to Colombian Vice Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón. The Colombian Army cornered the hostages' captors, the FARC's notorious 1st Front-the latest success stemming from Bogotá's tactic of dropping its special forces into the jungle and keeping the weakened guerrillas on the run. "But we took the decision not to attack," Pinzón told NEWSWEEK, because the government wanted to convey it had a new "strategic concept." "We want to send a message to the FARC and to the world: not to exterminate the FARC but to welcome back anyone who wants to come into the system."

For details about Columbia's Invincible Defense Technology system and other countries that have deployed this novel defence system see:

http://www.davidleffler.com/enewsletter/20080101_IDT_News.html
Posted By: observer101 @ 07/13/2008 7:07:29 PM

Comment: The more we deal with these militants the better we get..Cant accuse the U.S. of not being smart and learning how to evolve to these idiot militias and terror groups. They are rapidly becoming weak and desperate. I wouldnt be surprised to see some big event happen to bring the militants spirits back up though...Look for them to attack Israel, and make it look like Iran did it ( which they most likely did)and that helps start a war.
Posted By: Nins @ 07/13/2008 12:47:49 AM

Comment: Know why McCain wants to distance himself from former Senator Phil Gramm? It's not because of Gramm's obnoxious remarks calling Americans "a nation of whiners" who are in "a mental recession." Those remarks were so ascerbic that they may've been made just to give McCain an excuse to distance himself from Gramm. This issue is a lot deeper than it looks on the surface.

When Gramm was a Senator he was Chairman of the Banking Committee. He pushed through the legislation known as the "Enron Loophole." This loophole allowed US investment banks to bypass Federal regulations governing futures trading, and is the reason why investment banks were able to falsely inflate the prices of oil, wheat, corn and other commodities through massive futures trading, causing your costs of gas, heating oil and food to go through the roof.

Gramm also created the Gramm-Leach-Biley Act, which got rid of the laws that seperate banking, insurance and brokerage activities in America. The Gramm Act was touted as a new way to protect consumer privacy, but the real meat on the Act's bones was banking deregulation. Essentially, this Act did away with laws written after the Great Depression to protect us from another Wall Street/Banking Industry collapse. That's right, Gramm stripped the system of it's safe guards nine years ago, and guess what? The value of the dollar has nose-dived, four major economic institutions have failed, Wall Street is unstable, and we are in a worsening recession.

Notably, the US investment banks that gained the most from the Enron Loophole and from the Gramm Act contributed more than a million dollars to Gramm's campaign.

Currently Gramm is Vice Chairman of UBS, the Swiss Bank that came up with the idea of "death bonds." Worse, though, UBS is involved in a scam where they sold auction rate securities to American customers. Auction rate securities are supposed to be as safe as cash, but the way UBS did it, the fees garnished by their in-house investment bankers were intentionally higher than the return on the securities, ripping off their American customers. The Massachusetts Attorney General has already filed charges against UBS, and private brokers world-wide have dropped UBS stock. UBS is forecasted to lose 82.91% of it's value in 2008. We are talking about the corporate bank where Gramm is Vice Chairman. Looking at his track record there and at the havoc he has wrought on the US economy through the Senate Banking Committee, it's clear that Gramm is a either criminal or grossly incompetent.

Now McCain wants nothing to do with Gramm, wants us to forget Gramm has been a key player on McCain's team. Gramm was McCain's campaign CO-CHAIR and LEADING ECONOMIC ADVISOR. Previously, McCain had said that he planned to appoint Gramm as SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.

With Gramm as McCain's leading economic advisor, now you know why economists and analysts say that McCain's economic policy plans are untenable.
- Posted By: Faded06 @ 07/13/2008 11:29:18
  
  Comment: Please stop posting this on every article. It belongs with the financial story that it started with.
  - Posted By: observer101 @ 07/13/2008 21:19:42
    
    Comment: That seems to be all nins can do is repost the same thing over and over...Guess all of his/her points or arguments for everything else ran out.