The Perils of Face-Offs
When assembling an army it is always a good idea to know that one is in control, one can rely on the professionalism, the dedication, the support of the military for the governing body that sends them into action on behalf of the beloved country.In countries of the West it matters little that the constituent parts of the military may be construed of various ethnic groups and adherents to various religions. Protestant and Catholic soldiers, for example, will go into combat together at the behest of their country.
In the Muslim world, at this time in history, the witches' brew of mingling Sunni and Shia can result in dire consequences. And then there are factions within factions; Shia battling Shia of different persuasions, just as Sunnis differ within themselves. A prescription for awkward results.
And if a leader of a country like Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki whose state militia is comprised largely of Shia Muslims, exhorts them to march on an irregular Shia militia, mightn't the outcome be rather predictable? Surprise, surprise, as the leading government figure of his country he initiated an advance on Moqtada al-Sadr's faithful in Basra.
Clearly, he felt the country wasn't large enough for both his army and the Mahdi army. The sticking point, the reason why "radical" Shiite cleric al-Sadr left the governing alliance was the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq. So Mr. al-Maliki, exerting his authority over a sovereign Iraq, did not give the U.S. authority in Iraq a courtesy heads-up pre-march into Basra.
But did mightily appreciate the U.S. overflight involvement to assist in countering a demonstrably intransigent army of defiance.
Iraqi security forces, he obviously felt, were more than capable of routing the Sadrist militias. Oops, seems they weren't. As it happened, in the melees that followed the initial advance, officers and enlisted men of the Iraqi security forces felt it the better part of valour to flee the carnage being inflicted upon them.
Some of those who deserted were thought to have joined the enemy, the followers of Moqtada al-Sadr.
How utterly inconvenient, bordering on embarrassment. But nothing embarrasses the entitled, the officiously righteous. "Those people did not do their duties in Basra and Kut" said Major-General Abdel Karim Khalaf, on behalf of his government, in firing hundreds of Iraqi troops and police who fled the scene of battles.
Those who have the courage to kill unarmed civilians often find that courage dissipating when facing equally-armed and determined insurgents.
And there have been unfortunate, but unavoidable deaths aplenty among the civilian populations in Basra and other Shiite areas loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki deplored the recent assassination of an aide and relative-by-marriage to Moqtada al-Sadr in Najaf as a "brutal crime".
Strange coincidence that reporters are being informed by Shiites that "Brutal crimes have increased recently against us from many quarters. They don't like the al-Sadr movement's stand against the occupation. But we will not submit, even if they kill us all."
They're working on it, although they've a way to go - a mere 700 killed by the last accounting
Labels: Middle East, Troublespots, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Monday, April 14, 2008
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