Iraq's New Army Challenged by Ethnic Militias
bloomberg: President George W. Bush's strategy for transforming Iraq is threatened by the growth of sectarian militias that are undercutting Iraq's nascent national army and fueling ethnic violence, according to analysts and former U.S. officials.
The Defense Department's intelligence agency says there are dozens of loosely organized Shiite armies in southern Iraq, Kurdish militias in the north that function like a regular army, and as many as 20,000 Sunni fighters who are part of the violent insurgency in Iraq's four central provinces.
Bush insisted yesterday that Iraq was moving steadily toward political unity even amid violence and turmoil. Fears "that Iraq could break apart and fall into civil war'' are unjustified, he said during a speech in Philadelphia.
Some analysts don't share his optimism. "The situation continues to deteriorate,'' said Anthony Cordesman of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. "It's a matter of the militias, new political organizations, Shiite groups'' and Iraqi security forces becoming "forces for revenge or reprisal.''
.. First Allegiance
Leslie Gelb, former assistant secretary of state and former president of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, said most of the militias pay first allegiance to their ethnic or tribal group.
"It's not an Iraqi army,'' said Gelb, who visited Iraq for 10 days earlier this year. Kurds are loyal to Kurds, Shiite militias resembling "mafia operations'' run the south, "the central region has the insurgency, and Baghdad is all mixed up,'' he said.
Patrick Lang, former chief analyst for the Middle East at the Defense Intelligence Agency, said Iraq's different ethnic groups "will not serve together'' in national army units.
"They tried it and it didn't work, and now they're going back to ethnically pure units,'' he said, citing Defense Department officials he declined to identify. Lang, a retired colonel in the Army's Green Berets, is now president of Global Resources Group, a Washington-based consulting firm. Read more
The Defense Department's intelligence agency says there are dozens of loosely organized Shiite armies in southern Iraq, Kurdish militias in the north that function like a regular army, and as many as 20,000 Sunni fighters who are part of the violent insurgency in Iraq's four central provinces.
Bush insisted yesterday that Iraq was moving steadily toward political unity even amid violence and turmoil. Fears "that Iraq could break apart and fall into civil war'' are unjustified, he said during a speech in Philadelphia.
Some analysts don't share his optimism. "The situation continues to deteriorate,'' said Anthony Cordesman of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. "It's a matter of the militias, new political organizations, Shiite groups'' and Iraqi security forces becoming "forces for revenge or reprisal.''
.. First Allegiance
Leslie Gelb, former assistant secretary of state and former president of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, said most of the militias pay first allegiance to their ethnic or tribal group.
"It's not an Iraqi army,'' said Gelb, who visited Iraq for 10 days earlier this year. Kurds are loyal to Kurds, Shiite militias resembling "mafia operations'' run the south, "the central region has the insurgency, and Baghdad is all mixed up,'' he said.
Patrick Lang, former chief analyst for the Middle East at the Defense Intelligence Agency, said Iraq's different ethnic groups "will not serve together'' in national army units.
"They tried it and it didn't work, and now they're going back to ethnically pure units,'' he said, citing Defense Department officials he declined to identify. Lang, a retired colonel in the Army's Green Berets, is now president of Global Resources Group, a Washington-based consulting firm. Read more
posted by exoplanet at 6:52 PM
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