The Enemies Within The Iraqi Army
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Iraq, WarGiven the story about our forces possibly pulling back, I thought I’d do some digging on the readiness of the Iraqi Army.
The one story that stood out was this from Michael Totten…
BAGHDAD – The American soldier sitting next to me flipped open his Zippo lighter and gloomily lit a cigarette. “Do you know why this base isn’t attacked by insurgents?” he said.I assumed it was because his area of operations, in the Graya’at neighborhood of northern Baghdad out of Coalition Outpost War Eagle, had been cleared of insurgents. Many American military bases and outposts in Iraq are attacked by Al Qaeda terrorists and Mahdi Army militiamen with mortars and rockets. War Eagle was quiet and had not been bombarded for months.
“We aren’t being attacked because the Mahdi Army is in the next building,” he said. “They don’t want to hit their own people.”
American soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division shared the small outpost with Iraqi Army soldiers who lived, worked, and slept in the building next door.
“You mean the Iraqi Army unit here has been infiltrated?” I said.
He nodded grimly and took a pull from his cigarette.
“That’s a bad reason for us not to be mortared,” I said.
“Yeah,” he said and laughed. It was obvious, though, that he did not think it was funny.
So they might technically be ready to hold areas once we pull back and focus our attention elsewhere, but they could very well be undermined from within. And I can only imagine that this sort of thing is rampant since we’re so desparate to build up Iraqi forces.
Here’s more…
Master Sergeant Jeffrey K. Tyler met with me privately.“It’s true,” he said. “Many of the Iraqi Army soldiers here are supporters of JAM.” JAM is military shorthand for Jaysh al Mahdi, or Moqtada al Sadr’s radical Shia Mahdi Army militia. “They aren’t in JAM cells necessarily, but they are sympathizers. They may let JAM guys through checkpoints, for example. They aren’t out kidnapping Sunnis or anything like that. They are sympathizers, not direct actors. Almost all the Iraqi Army soldiers here are Shias.”
“Is their presence here the reason we aren’t getting mortared?” I said. “Because the Mahdi Army doesn’t want to blow up their own people?”
“We think that’s probably so,” he said and nodded with confidence.
Still think pulling our troops out is a good idea? Again, this sounds like our previous plan that failed miserably. Go in, secure a place and then leave it to the Iraqi forces…who can’t or won’t defend it and so it goes to hell again.
And so it goes…
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August 15th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Justin,
You make an assumption in your title, that the “Mahdi Army” is “the Enemy”.
Now - we don’t like the Mahdi Army, and we don’t like their leader Moqtada Al-Sadr, but - They are not “Al Queda”. They are not Baathists or Sadaamites. They are not the people we went into Iraq to fight. In fact, they are the very Iraqi’s, the exact oppressed Religious sect that we presumably went in to Iraq offer the gift of freedom at the point of a gun. The Mahdi Army and Moqtada Al Sadr have overwhelming support in the largest majority in Iraq - The Shia. They voted and Maliki only formed a government with their support. This is exactly the point I was trying to make in my post “The Face of Victory in Iraq”.
I am beginning to suspect that this is the exact reason why Bush is so intransigent. The natural leadership in Iraq when we leave is Al Sadr and his followers, including those Iraqi’s in the Mahdi Army, which is actually in the process of becoming the Iraqi Army. Bush just wants this transition to happen on the next President’s watch. They just don’t want to have to explain what victory actually looks like.
My fellow Americans - let us celebrate! We have victory in Iraq! The people we freed from Saddam’s yoke are now in the Army and waiting for us to leave so they can take formally over the government. Declare victory! Our job is done - lets get the hell out.
August 15th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Screwed up link to “Face of Victory on Iraq.”
… and at
DWSUWF.
August 15th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Point well taken. I share your “enthusiasm.”
March 29th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Here here!