The Skeptic الشكاك

57 Is Iraq already at war with itself?

Oh. No.

This is just about the worst possible thing that could happen in Iraq right now. This should be an outrage to any Muslim or to anyone who believes in the value of the world’s historical heritage. It’s probably no coincidence that this latest rash of bombings against Shia targets comes immediately after the Feb. 16 report that an Iraqi Interior Ministry “death squad” has been targetting Iraqi Sunnis.

This is a very dangerous moment. You’re an Iraqi government minister. What do you do to prevent the situation from deteriorating further? I put this question by email to a trusted friend in Baghdad, who wisely declined to comment:

Yes things get worse by the minute here. And you’ll have read about the retaliatory attacks on Sunni mosques after Samarra. This afternoon people are leaving work early to go home as things erupt. Pretty much a downward spiral—who knows how it can be stopped or when. Been saying all along that civil war had already started. Don’t know—too depressing to think about. Just preparing now for another round of Saddam trial sessions early next week, and keeping heads down in the meantime. Nightlife in Cairo sounds very enticing right now.

Actually, I hadn’t heard about the revenge attacks against dozens of Sunni mosques. That detail was added to the BBC story I first read later in the day.

Since I’m not as wise or as close to the action as my friend, let me offer my attempt at an answer from the comfort of my Cairo apartment: The rash of condemnations from respectable Iraqi Sunni organizations is a good first step. The bombers must be brought to justice quickly to defuse Shia anger in Iraq and in Iran. This will likely require Sunni cooperation. The Sunni organizations that condemned the bombing should mobilize their constituencies toward that end.

Soldiers should be deployed to protect Sunni and Shia mosques immediately. This is clearly a job for the Iraqi military and police force. It also would not hurt the United States’ image in Iraq and elsewhere in the region to have its own soldiers seen defending Islamic holy sites.

Everyone agrees on the importance of a “unity government.” If that’s going to stick, the Sunnis on the streets with access to guns and bombs must feel the government also represents their interests, or, at minimum, isn’t supporting Saddam-style death squads to drag their cousins out into the desert or into dark alleys to murder them. If I were an Iraqi Sunni right now, some part of me would be worried that the new, Shia-dominated government might be out for revenge. They must be made to feel that it is not.

The investigation the Iraqi government has promised into whether, or how, the 22 men arrested as members of the death squads are linked to the Interior Ministry—beyond being members of the police force, which falls under the authority of the Interior Ministry, that is—can be useful toward that end. The investigation must proceed very quickly. All those responsible for the policy and its execution, regardless of their rank or nationality, should be fired, arrested, and tried. Now.

Here’s a troubling thought: Detlev Mehlis, investigating the Hariri killing, concluded that it could not have taken place without the knowledge of Syrian officials. What if someone were to apply the “Mehlis principle” here? Could police death squads operate in Iraq for more than a year without the knowledge of U.S. officials? Could police death squads with connections within the Interior Ministry itself operate in Iraq for more than a year without U.S. officials’ at least turning a blind eye?

Either way, it looks bad for the Americans. If they didn’t know what the police force was up to, despite the repeated accusations… well, let’s just leave it at “that looks bad.” If they did know—and I can certainly imagine a U.S. official saying, “Hmm, a Sunni terrorist who probably killed six of my boys and a dozen Iraqis dragged out and shot by Iraqi police commandos… Oh well,” if not “Let’s have Iraqi commandos kill Iraqi terrorists; that’s the whole point of training Iraqi security services”— did no one stop to say, “Um, boss, this just might be criminal, and given the explosive situation at the moment, just a bit dangerous?”

That the arrested men were totally open about what they were doing when stopped at an Iraqi army checkpoint suggests the confidence they felt in their institutional support. U.S. Maj. Gen. Joseph Peterson, who is in charge of training the Iraqi police, told reporters, “The amazing thing is… they tell you exactly what they’re going to do.” Is this feigned surprise? Can he really think these guys are just that stupid?

I’m not suggesting that Gen. Peterson or the interior minister knew. The line emerging from the Iraqi government and the U.S. military is that these were Badrist infiltrators, possibly assisted by lower-level Interior Ministry officials. That’s definitely plausible. The movement of militiamen into the police force has been widely reported. And we can safely assume that high-level Iraqi and U.S. officials had heard allegations of police death squads’ killing Sunni Iraqis.

So if these guys were walking around, openly telling soldiers what they were up to, why has it taken so long for any of them to be caught? Has there been a change in policy? Or did they just stumble across the wrong soldiers, guys who took their training seriously, at that particular checkpoint? And is it possible that Iraqi crack police units are roaming Iraq, telling anyone who asks, “We’re about to shoot this man,” without running into U.S. soldiers?

A friend who served with the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan’s short answer was “yes.” He said he couldn’t offer specifics, but he said he could offer perspective into the dynamic over there that might shed some light on how this would be possible. If he has no objection, I may post some of that perspective here. I’ll ask him.

Now, I trust this guy. If it really is likely that this is the first big breakthrough the U.S. military and the highest levels of the Iraqi Interior Ministry have had in trying to address a problem they’ve been genuinely concerned about for a year or more, what are they going to do about it now? Recent events suggest that the answer to that question will shape Iraqi history.

[tags]Iraq[/tags]

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1. Consider:
   The missing element in every human ‘solution’ is
   an accurate definition of the creature.

   The way we define ‘human’ determines our view
   of self, others, relationships, institutions, life, and
   future. Important? Only the Creator who made us
   in His own image is qualified to define us accurately.
   Choose wisely…there are results.

   Many problems in human experience are the result of
   false and inaccurate definitions of humankind premised
   in man-made religions and humanistic philosophies.

   Each individual human being possesses a unique, highly
   developed, and sensitive perception of diversity. Thus
   aware, man is endowed with a natural capability for enact-
   ing internal mental and external physical selectivity.
   Quantitative and qualitative choice-making thus lends
   itself as the superior basis of an active intelligence.

   Human is earth’s Choicemaker. His title describes
   his definitive and typifying characteristic. Recall
   that his other features are but vehicles of experi-
   ence intent on the development of perceptive
   awareness and the following acts of decision and
   choice. Note that the products of man cannot define
   him for they are the fruit of the discerning choice-
   making process and include the cognition of self,
   the utility of experience, the development of value-
   measuring systems and language, and the accultur-
   ation of civilization.

   The arts and the sciences of man, as with his habits,
   customs, and traditions, are the creative harvest of
   his perceptive and selective powers. Creativity, the
   creative process, is a choice-making process. His
   articles, constructs, and commodities, however
   marvelous to behold, deserve neither awe nor idol-
   atry, for man, not his contrivance, is earth’s own
   highest expression of the creative process.

   Human is earth’s Choicemaker. The sublime and
   significant act of choosing is, itself, the Archimedean
   fulcrum upon which man levers and redirects the
   forces of cause and effect to an elected level of qual-
   ity and diversity. Further, it orients him toward a
   natural environmental opportunity, freedom, and
   bestows earth’s title, The Choicemaker, on his
   singular and plural brow.

   Human is earth’s Choicemaker. Psalm 25:12 He is by
   nature and nature’s God a creature of Choice – and of
   Criteria. Psalm 119:30,173 His unique and definitive
   characteristic is, and of Right ought to be, the natural
   foundation of his environments, institutions, and re-
   spectful relations to his fellow-man. Thus, he is orien-
   ted to a Freedom whose roots are in the Order of the
   universe.

   Let us proclaim it. Behold!
   The Season of Generation-Choicemaker Joel 3:14 KJV

   – from The HUMAN PARADIGM

   Comment by James Fletcher Baxter — March 29, 2006 #

2. whistles…

   Comment by The Skeptic — March 29, 2006 #

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