American Backed Sunni Militias
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November 25, 2007 | In an article today in the Sunday Times, it is said that the United States is currently paying Sunni militia men $300 per month and providing vehicles, uniforms and flak jackets in return for the militia keeping al-Qadea out of the neighborhoods they patrol. There is no evidence provided that comparable Shia militias are being supported as well. In fact, the one-sided support of Sunni militia in various regions appears to enhance ethnic cleansing evidenced by testimony of Iraqis given such ultimatums as "leave within three days or die".

While the Sunni militia are patrolling primarily Sunni areas, there is a good deal of concern that such militias, reported 77,000 strong, anticipate a coming war with Shia militia once the United States pares back their troops in the near future.

Abu Omar, an intelligence officer with the Baghdad Brigade in Abu Ghraib, was candid.

  • "Of course the coming war is with the [Shi'ite] militias," he said. "God willing, we will defeat them and get rid of them just as we did Al-Qaeda."
  • Abu Maroof, one of the brigade's commanders, said that he regarded the Shi'ite militias, which include the Mahdi Army of the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, as more dangerous than the United States.

The old Baathist regime headed by the Saddam Hussein was effectively a small Sunni minority ruling Iraq, originally under a guise of sectarianism, that eventually evolved into brutality and oppression of a much larger Shia population. Does the United States support the Sunni minority in order to maintain an effective and armed anti Iranian indigenous force at the expense of the majority Shia population? Or is the fear of foreign fighters the greater concern? Saudi Arabia is controlled by Sunni tribes and has expressed concern over the plight of the Sunni in Iraq. We are also told that a majority of foreign fighters in Iraq are Saudi nationals. So, are the Saudi foreign fighters in league with the indigenous Iraqi Sunni, or do they comprise the elements of al-Qaeda that the Iraqi Sunni militia are said to be expelling or a combination of both?

Does the future hold a Sunni versus Shia war - as American troops watch from the newly constructed and strategically located bases throughout Iraq? What side will the United States support in this future war?

American-backed killer militias strut across Iraq, Hala Jaber, Baghdad, Times Online, November 25, 2007.

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11.25.2007

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