#1 I talked to said nearly all of the police at the al-Amil Station we visited are affiliated with Jaish al Mahdi, the militia of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Some of them are affiliated just so they donÂ’t get killed, but others are actively involved and are suspected of being involved in attacks against Americans and death squad killings of Sunnis. How are these airmen supposed to do their jobs when they are worried that the guy theyÂ’re training might try to kill them later? TheyÂ’re trying to weed out the good from the bad, but the lines arenÂ’t as clear-cut or as visible as they would like.
One more reason that Moqtada Sadr and everyone connected with him should have been rounded up and shot way early in the game. Sadr's militias import Islamic doctrine's use of terrorism. That alone will keep up the truck bombs and IEDs that are killing so many Coalition troops and Iraqi citizens.
The Iraqi government must find the courage to endure unpopularity and roll up or officially disband the militias. Their attempts to utilize these violent thugs are the very worst sort of cynical politics that will keep Iraq languishing in the stone age. The sooner Sadr and his thugs are Tango Uniform, the better. |