Pro-Iran Shiite militias legalized by Iraq

Iraq's Shiite Militias

The Bush-Obama Clusterfuck

• From day one of the invasion of Iraq by the Moron Bush I screamed that were were deliberately taking out the major enemy of Iran and recreating a new Persian Empire. It is a burden to be right 98.7% of the time, but I have learned to live with it.

(AP) — Rekindling sectarian rivalries at a sensitive time, Iraq's parliament on Saturday voted to fully legalize state-sanctioned Shiite militias long accused of abuses against minority Sunnis, adopting a legislation that promoted them to a government force empowered to "deter" security and terror threats facing the country, like the Islamic State group.

The legislation, supported by 208 of the chamber's 327 members, was quickly rejected by Sunni Arab politicians and lawmakers as proof of the "dictatorship" of the country's Shiite majority and evidence of its failure to honor promises of inclusion.

"The majority does not have the right to determine the fate of everyone else," Osama al-Nujaifi, one of Iraq's three vice presidents and a senior Sunni politician, told reporters after the vote, which was boycotted by many Sunni lawmakers.

"There should be genuine political inclusion. This law must be revised."

Another Sunni politician, legislator Ahmed al-Masary, said the law cast doubt on the participation in the political process by all of Iraq's religious and ethnic factions.

"The legislation aborts nation building," he said, adding it would pave the way for a dangerous parallel to the military and police.

According to a text released by parliament, the militias have now become an "independent" force that is part of the armed forces and report to the prime minister, who is also the commander in chief.

The new force would be subject to military regulations, except for age and education requirements — provisions designed to prevent the exclusion of the elderly and uneducated Iraqis who joined the militias. The militiamen would benefit from salaries and pensions identical to those of the military and police, but are required to severe all links to political parties and refrain from political activism.

The Shiite militias, most of which are backed by Iran, have been bankrolled and equipped by the government since shortly after IS swept across much of northern and western Iraq two years ago. Many of them existed long before IS emerged, fighting American troops in major street battles during the U.S. military presence in Iraq between 2003 and 2011. Their ranks, however, significantly swelled after Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called for jihad, or holy struggle, against IS in June 2014.

They now number over 100,000 men and fight with heavy weaponry, including tanks, artillery and rocket launchers. The larger militias have intelligence agencies and run their own jails. Since 2014 they have played a key role in the fight against IS, checking its advance on Baghdad and the Shiite holy cities of Samarra and Karbala and later driving the militants from areas to the south, northeast and north of Baghdad.

Their heavy battlefield involvement followed the collapse of security forces in the face of the 2014 IS blitz, but their role has somewhat diminished in recent months as more and more of Iraq's military units regained their strength and chose to distance themselves from the occasionally unruly militiamen.

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The Battle for Iraq: 

Shia Militias vs. the Islamic State

Shiite militias crimes in Iraq - Fallujah, May 2016

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