Saturday, September 24, 2005

In Iraq: Badr vs Sadr & Brit Troops Dress as Mahdis

TomPaine: A simmering battle between 2 Shiite paramilitary armies is brewing in Iraq between a) The forces of the Badr Brigade, the 20,000-strong force controlled by the Iranian-supported Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), and b) The Mahdi Army, the thousands-strong force that worships the fanatical Muqtada Al Sadr. The battle, which might flare into a Shiite-Shiite civil war in advance of the Oct 15 referendum on Iraq’s divisive, rigged constitution, could put the final nail in the coffin of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy. To hear Saudi Arabia's foreign minister (Prince Saud al-Faisal) tell it, Iraq is hurtling towards disintegration and that an election planned for Dec is unlikely to make any difference. And adding gasoline to the flames is this: the 2 Brit soldiers-- who were "busted out" of an Iraqi prison after Iraqi police claimed the Brit soldiers fired upon Iraqi police and civilians-- were dressed as Mahdi Army members & were loaded to the teeth w/suicide bomber weaponry. Hmm... why exactly would 2 Brit soldiers dress up as soldiers of Muqtada Al Sadr and have suicide bomber weapons? B/c they wanted to make the Iraqi police and civilians believe that they were Mahdi Army members and cause resentment towards Sadr's followers. Of course, if you hear the Ministry of Defence tell the story, the 2 Brits were rescued from a militia, but I'll take Juan Cole's take on the situation b/c Cole calls a spade a spade: "The entire episode reeks of "dual sovereignty," in which there are 2 distinct sources of govt authority. Social historian Charles Tilly says that dual sovereignty signals a revolutionary situation." Revolutionary situation? In Iraq? Really?
That. Is. Soooo. Shocking.
Posted by Tina :: 12:22 AM :: 2 Comments:

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