Pepe Escobar: "What is the US up to in Iraq?"

from aljazeera........

"In pure neo-newspeak, US troops start to be called "trainers" - as in training Iraqis to man the fighters and helicopters al-Maliki's government recently bought from the US industrial-military complex.  

And then there will be up to 7,000 "private military contractors", aka mercenaries, to provide "security" for the bigger-than-the-Vatican US Embassy, aka Fortress Baghdad, as well as extra, assorted contractors.

The US, anyway, won't give up. The bet is on a mix of old school - swarms of CIA operatives based at the US embassy - and new school - a swarm of paramilitary mercenaries.

From Washington's point of view, the road map is here: It includes as many as 17,000 people managed by the State Department providing "situational awareness", able to "manage political crises" and "delivering economic, development and security assistance".

Further road maps can be found here, which detail the State Department overseeing "a planned $6.8 billion operation", which can be translated as: without any oil grabbing, the occupation will only pay off if Iraq becomes a client regime"................READ MORE