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Who is the Iraqi Army?
By Cenk Uygur
Created Mar 28 2008 - 9:55am
Who is the Iraqi Army? That seems like a strange question. What do I mean?
The Bush administration claims the Iraqi Army is a unified force of Shiites,
Sunnis and Kurds who fight together for the centralized government of Iraq.
That's complete nonsense.
In fact, the different divisions of the army are segregated by sect. The
so-called Iraqi Army fighting in the south right now is mainly the Badr
Corps. This is a rival Shiite militia to Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.
The Badr Corps is connected to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council [1]. Don't
get freaked out, they're theoretically the good guys. Well, at least they
are the largest political party in Iraq and the ones we are supporting.
Here's the problem -- they're not the good guys at all. They ran death
squads and torture chambers out of the Interior Ministry throughout the
period of ethnic cleansing in Iraq.
And get this, out of all the parties in Iraq, the one most closely linked to
Iran is -- the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and their militia partners in
the Badr Corps.
So, who is the Iraqi Army? The ones fighting Sadr's forces right now is the
Badr Corps -- a Shiite militia with closer ties to Iran than Sadr.
Why are we backing the most pro-Iranian group inside Iraq? Two possible
choices. 1) We don't know our ass from a hole in the ground in Iraq. 2) We
don't really believe Iran is a threat to Iraq (or to us).
I understand that this is confusing to the average American. The only reason
I understand it is because the preeminent expert on Iraq, Juan Cole [2],
explained it to me in this interview [3] (it's a little long, but in about
twenty minutes Prof. Cole explains exactly who is who in Iraq and why our
efforts are insanely counterproductive).
So, I'm not frustrated by the fact that the public isn't up on all this. I'm
frustrated that our media hasn't even bothered to try to figure it out (by
the way, one easy way would have been to do what we did -- ask Prof. Cole).
The press has bought into this fiction that we are fighting against Iranian
proxies.
Whenever Bush, Cheney or Petraeus says we are being bombed by Iranian backed
militias, the press dutifully writes that down and never really questions
it. Has anyone confirmed that Sadr is actually getting help from Iran? More
importantly, has anyone looked into where the Badr Corps' sympathies lie?
When is the last time you even heard of the Badr Corps in the mainstream
press?
Has anyone done an investigation into who's in the Iraqi Army? How does it
run? Do the Iraqi troops really fell like a unified force? (The best piece
I've seen on it is by Nir Rosen [4] in Rolling Stone and he shows clearly
that they are nowhere near unified.) Are the divisions mixed or segregated?
Where do the different sects patrol? In their own area or in other areas of
Iraq? Who controls the Iraqi Army? And what is their purpose?
If you look into these questions, you'll find that the core of the Iraqi
Army is simply another Shiite militia. In essence, we are supporting one
Shiite militia over another. Worse yet, we're supporting the militia with
more ties to Iran.
If you don't believe me, and for some bizarre reason you don't believe Prof.
Cole, then by all means, please investigate and find out what's actually
going on. In other words, I am encouraging the press to actually do their
job.
Don't get me wrong, it's not like it's easy to do reporting out of Iraq.
These folks are literally taking their lives into their hands by doing so.
But it's one thing to say the situation is unclear. It's another to parrot
government talking points because you don't know any better.
The press keeps talking about how they blew it in the lead up to the war,
but then they act like they have learned nothing from their mistakes. One of
the principal problems before the war was that the media unquestioningly
accepted government suppositions as if they were true -- which is exactly
what they're doing now.
These basic questions must be answered: Who are we really fighting? What is
their goal? Who is on our side? What is their goal? And, oh yeah, what is
our goal? Why are we backing one militia over another and how does that
serve American interests? And how is any of this leading to "victory" in
Iraq? And the one no one bothers to ask anymore - what the hell does victory
in Iraq really mean?
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
By Cenk Uygur
Created Mar 28 2008 - 9:55am
Who is the Iraqi Army? That seems like a strange question. What do I mean?
The Bush administration claims the Iraqi Army is a unified force of Shiites,
Sunnis and Kurds who fight together for the centralized government of Iraq.
That's complete nonsense.
In fact, the different divisions of the army are segregated by sect. The
so-called Iraqi Army fighting in the south right now is mainly the Badr
Corps. This is a rival Shiite militia to Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.
The Badr Corps is connected to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council [1]. Don't
get freaked out, they're theoretically the good guys. Well, at least they
are the largest political party in Iraq and the ones we are supporting.
Here's the problem -- they're not the good guys at all. They ran death
squads and torture chambers out of the Interior Ministry throughout the
period of ethnic cleansing in Iraq.
And get this, out of all the parties in Iraq, the one most closely linked to
Iran is -- the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and their militia partners in
the Badr Corps.
So, who is the Iraqi Army? The ones fighting Sadr's forces right now is the
Badr Corps -- a Shiite militia with closer ties to Iran than Sadr.
Why are we backing the most pro-Iranian group inside Iraq? Two possible
choices. 1) We don't know our ass from a hole in the ground in Iraq. 2) We
don't really believe Iran is a threat to Iraq (or to us).
I understand that this is confusing to the average American. The only reason
I understand it is because the preeminent expert on Iraq, Juan Cole [2],
explained it to me in this interview [3] (it's a little long, but in about
twenty minutes Prof. Cole explains exactly who is who in Iraq and why our
efforts are insanely counterproductive).
So, I'm not frustrated by the fact that the public isn't up on all this. I'm
frustrated that our media hasn't even bothered to try to figure it out (by
the way, one easy way would have been to do what we did -- ask Prof. Cole).
The press has bought into this fiction that we are fighting against Iranian
proxies.
Whenever Bush, Cheney or Petraeus says we are being bombed by Iranian backed
militias, the press dutifully writes that down and never really questions
it. Has anyone confirmed that Sadr is actually getting help from Iran? More
importantly, has anyone looked into where the Badr Corps' sympathies lie?
When is the last time you even heard of the Badr Corps in the mainstream
press?
Has anyone done an investigation into who's in the Iraqi Army? How does it
run? Do the Iraqi troops really fell like a unified force? (The best piece
I've seen on it is by Nir Rosen [4] in Rolling Stone and he shows clearly
that they are nowhere near unified.) Are the divisions mixed or segregated?
Where do the different sects patrol? In their own area or in other areas of
Iraq? Who controls the Iraqi Army? And what is their purpose?
If you look into these questions, you'll find that the core of the Iraqi
Army is simply another Shiite militia. In essence, we are supporting one
Shiite militia over another. Worse yet, we're supporting the militia with
more ties to Iran.
If you don't believe me, and for some bizarre reason you don't believe Prof.
Cole, then by all means, please investigate and find out what's actually
going on. In other words, I am encouraging the press to actually do their
job.
Don't get me wrong, it's not like it's easy to do reporting out of Iraq.
These folks are literally taking their lives into their hands by doing so.
But it's one thing to say the situation is unclear. It's another to parrot
government talking points because you don't know any better.
The press keeps talking about how they blew it in the lead up to the war,
but then they act like they have learned nothing from their mistakes. One of
the principal problems before the war was that the media unquestioningly
accepted government suppositions as if they were true -- which is exactly
what they're doing now.
These basic questions must be answered: Who are we really fighting? What is
their goal? Who is on our side? What is their goal? And, oh yeah, what is
our goal? Why are we backing one militia over another and how does that
serve American interests? And how is any of this leading to "victory" in
Iraq? And the one no one bothers to ask anymore - what the hell does victory
in Iraq really mean?
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson