Shiite militia fighters of
the Badr Organization celebrating in Diyala Province after defeating
Islamic State militants. The militias are feared by Sunnis who accuse
them of summary killings.
Credit
Ahmad Al-Rubaye/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images February 7, 2015By
Kareem Fahim
CAMP ASHRAF, Iraq — At their victory rally, (click here) the Shiite militiamen used poetry, song and swagger to sweeten their celebration of an ugly battle.
More than a hundred fighters from the militia, the Badr Organization, had been killed in the farms and villages of Diyala Province in recent fighting against the Sunni extremists of the Islamic State. During the battle, thousands of residents had been forced from their homes — including Sunni families who accused Shiite paramilitary groups like Badr of forced displacement and summary executions....
The groups fighting IS should remain resolved to focus on the common enemy. The region does not need further civil war. People die in war and this certainly is a war. It might be in the best interest of all right now to allow the provinces to defend themselves and set aside the idea of one country so much as three provinces.
It is difficult to find what Americans would recognize as a cohesive Iraq military. The assessment of Americans first deployed into Iraq were that few groups were recognizable as the units brought together years ago. If the ethnicities are the strongest method of bringing men together in a common enemy, then there is no sense in demanding they respect one commander to organize under one Iraqi flag.
The differences should be tolerated to end the heinous killing of IS. Their holy men are going to have to focus them. There holy men are more than capable of doing so.
The United States was foolish to believe Iraq could ever maintain it's sovereignty. The people have to survive the IS's Ba'athists. That has to come first otherwise there is no nation to protect.
