U.S. tolerates Shiite militias

The Times reports point blank today what ought to have been obvious since the start of the so-called "surge," namely, that the United States has decided to concentrate its fire on the Sunnis and give the Shiite death squads and paramilitary forces -- read: SCIRI -- a free pass. Notes the Times:

In Baghdad, American officials seem increasingly willing to tolerate some of those Shiite militias as long as they patrol their own neighborhoods. Administration officials said they had eased up on parts of the timetable for re-integrating former Baathists, for fear of a Shiite backlash.

An accompanying Times piece makes this even more explicit, citing Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the top spokesman for the United States military :

General Caldwell’s comments — combined with praise for the cooperation of Shiite officials and negotiators for the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia loyal to the cleric Moktada al-Sadr — seemed to suggest that the military was returning to its former strategy of concentrating on Sunni extremists. That would represent a change from American officials’ comments in the past few months that identified Shiite militias as Iraq’s largest threat.

Thanks to Juan Cole's Informed Comment blog, we have an interview with Khalaf al-Ulayyan, a Sunni member of parliament, who accuses the United States of launching an all-out assault against the Sunnis while bringing Shiite militamen into the Iraqi forces involved in the "surge." In Amman, speaking to Iraq's Al-Zawra TV, here's part of what Ulayyan says:

Al-Ulayyan accuses the Government of trying to gain time by impeding the security plan. "They want to gain time to evict and kill the largest possible number of Sunnis, especially in the Baghdad Governorate," he claims, adding: "They dissolved Al-Mahdi Army before the implementation of the plan and asked the Al-Mahdi Army not to take up arms against US forces." He says the government has absorbed them into the National Guard, the Interior Ministry storm troopers, or law enforcement personnel.

He says that "top Al-Mahdi Army commanders" were smuggled outside Iraq to keep them from being arrested or killed, and notes that there was "an order to that effect signed by the prime minister himself and was displayed on space channels and on the Internet." He argues that the US forces go to the Al-Sadr city but they do not encounter any resistance. He says they announce on television that "the US and government forces will be storming the Al-Sadr City to search for concealed arms," noting that this is a warning to them to be on their guard. He says once they hear such warning, they will conceal their arms or bury them and the wanted people will escape. Al-Ulayyan asks: "Why do they not do that in our areas? Why do they not say that they will storm Al-A'zamiah neighborhood? Why do they not say that they plan to storm Al-Khadra or Al-Ghazaliyah neighborhoods?"

Not surprisingly, though you don't often hear this from a member of the Iraqi parliament, Ulayyan explicitly supports the resistance in Iraq, though he condemns Al Qaeda.

Al-Ulayyan says the Iraqi resistance is an honor to every Iraqi. He says that "when the Iraqi state collapsed in such a short time, we were ashamed and I could not appear in public because I was ashamed." He says the Iraqi resistance restored the honor of the Iraqis. He says he is prepared to offer everything to the resistance, adding: "The Iraqi resistance that fights the occupation, that defends the Iraqis, and that does not shed the blood of the Iraqis is the real resistance. We do not recognize terrorism that kills the Iraqis -- Shiites, Sunnis, or others -- and we do not consider it Iraqi resistance.

Posted by Robert Dreyfuss on March 15, 2007 10:31 AM | Permalink