Frustrated Iraqis ready to take law into own hands(forming militias)

[maddezmom]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqis have begun barricading themselves in their homes and forming neighborhood militias in an effort to fend off relentless suicide attacks, residents in the capital said on Monday.

The measures come amid waning confidence in the Iraqi police and other security forces as they struggle to get on top of the two-year-old insurgency. In the latest attack, 98 people were killed by a suicide truck bomb south of Baghdad on Saturday.

A senior member of Iraq's parliament on Sunday called for popular militias to be created as an extra line of defense against the militants, and criticized the government for failing to stop the bombs.

"The plans of the interior and defense ministries to impose security in Iraq have failed," Khudair al-Khuzai told parliament during a heated session following the latest blast. "We need to bring back popular militias," he said, without expanding.

more:http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2005-07-18T125538Z_01_N18243383_RTRIDST_0_INTERNATIONAL-IRAQ-MILITIA-DC.XML

[Monkie]

1. old "militias" now called iraqi army/police/commando's n/t

[maquisard]

2. I'm surprised it took them this long

It was pretty predictable response given that there were no institutions in place in Iraq to prevent it. It would have been so nice if the bushista junta had bothered to give even the slightest thought to what they were doing, rather than just being dragged around by their microscopic genitalia...

[Roland99]

24. I was of the same sentiment...why take so long? Then I realized...

that if they had taken up arms sooner, they'd likely be branded as part of the insurgents by unaware U.S....er....multi-national forces that might have been in the area, thus getting themselves killed for protecting their own neighborhood.

[merwin]

3. This would be the beginning of civil war.

[soothsayer]

4. yeah. how do you keep US soldiers from shooting these militia

types?

[merwin]

5. Let's see... brown people with guns. Shoot them!!!

Our army has no way of discerning between a militia and an insurgent... therefore we will start shooting anything with (and sometimes without) a gun (which is pretty much what we've been doing all along)

[barb162]

16. I think it's a good idea and it seems to be working....so far

people protecting their neighborhoods, like a neighborhood watch. SO FAR

[dArKeR]

6. Iraq - Worse than Vietnam ; Rovegate - Worse than Watergate

[Sparkman]

17. 300+ U.S. mil bases on foreign soil. Hot war. Right on track! GREAT PLAN

[David__77]

7. If the militias reflected popular will, then this is good.

But I suspect that they will oppose US presence as well as the mercenary "Iraqi army."

[geek tragedy]

8. Get the troops out and let Iraqis clean up the mess themselves.

Yes, we created it. But we're not going to make things any better by hanging around. The work of creating an Iraqi public belongs to the hands of Iraqi patriots.

[krkaufman]

9. Yes, and prepare to pay whatever war reparations are demanded. n/t

[The_Casual_Observer]

10. "Let civil war & chaos reign!"

[anotherdrew]

11. right... militias.... like we wouldn't gun these folks down

Do they know they're likely to die by US sniper if seen with a weapon? Or are we not doing that anymore?

[Sparkman]

18. NO, no! All army sharpshooters were evacuated to E. Europe. Job's done.

IraqBodyCount.com will be unable to keep up if something doesn't intervene soon. What a crisis, what a huge waste of life.

[Igel]

12. Very bad thing.

That's exactly what they need more off: people pledging their allegiance to ethnic/tribal/sectarian bands.

You want a unified state, obviously the way to do it is by having militias, making the sectarian/ethnic/tribal divides even deeper. It worked so well for Afghanistan, Somalia ... Lebanon, Congo. And it looks like we're gearing up for Pakistan and Palestine.

[Sparkman]

13. And just who's fault would ass this ANARCHY be? I'm just asking people

[Igel]

21. First and foremost the people taking part in it.

As with the guy who blew up the tanker a few days ago, he chose to wear a bomb, he chose the target, and he chose to set off the bomb. The idea of a bomber having some sort of moral responsibility is, I know, regressive, but there you have it.

Beyond that, one could target * or people that have acted between 2003 and the present; one could target Saddam and his Islamic revivalism of the 1990s (assuming that bomber was an Iraqi; if not, one could look elsewhere), one could target imams that taught the British, the British who created Iraq, or the Ottomans who did nothing to assuage local problems. You start looking for first causes, and it's a bitch.

[maxsolomon]

26. ultimately only 1 man decided to take iraq apart

george w. bush. against the advice of his own father & 99.95% of the planet.

you can play a chicken & egg game if you want. iraq was stable before we broke it. we could have left the baathist army in place, but we dismantled that, too.

[sled]

14. What would Jefferson do?

"We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty, in a feather-bed."

Letter, April 2, 1790, to Lafayette.

[Sparkman]

15. And to think this all started long long ago in a land far far away...

The USSR suppression relied on killing off 1/3 a region's people.
Who wants to get in line to congratulate the military invasion's planners and enforcers? I feel like a peace-nik out of the past.
100,000 dead innocent Iraqi men, women & children. But you can't make a platform for U.S. political office out of these issues?

[AKing]

19. Militias = Warlords

Wecome to the new Afghanistan

[r0x0r Mc0wnage]

20. It is a cunning maneuver that will help all Iraqis

Centralization of power means that all you need to do to conquer the country is take out the central government. Medieval Russia provides us with an example of how this is done. One Tzar comes to power by killing the previous.

With local militias, occupiers are in a much more precarious position. If you take out or co-op one of them, all its neighbors will be driven into alliance against you. Medieval France provides the example of this system. When one principality is conquered, the surrounding Princes are wild-cards. They may ally with you if it is in their interest, or they may ally against you depending on what will better serve their own agenda.

The reformation of local militias is a positive step toward Iraqi Independence.

[alfredo]

22. Reemergence of the warlord system. Each miitia will combine with

or oppose a neighboring militia, Each militia will stake out an area, to protect and in time, exploit. Bigger militias will overrun smaller militia either by force or coercion. They know the larger area, the greater the influence, and larger the spoils.

[daleo]

23. This could make the oil business difficult

So many warlords to pay off...

[Javaman]

25. Common mentality during war or occupation which in turn leads to civil war

I'm also surprised they waited this long.

Generally, as history shows, when ever you have a week central gov't that is not providing adequate protection for it's native population, militia's will always spring up. It happened here during the revolution and civil war, France and Italy during WWII, etc.

Why I think it took this long is: I believe the average Iraqi at the start of the war, thought they still had a lot to loose. IE material possessions, job (what few there where), etc, however that has now completely changed. After 2 plus years of war and constant confusion as to what will be the future of Iraq, I believe they now are entering into the phase of: nothing left to loose. Which is extraordinarily dangerous and is the basis of civil war.

Suddenly whole towns and cities arm themselves. Strangers or any unknown person or persons entering into that town, become a target.

These potential little fiefdoms will, in an essence become nations unto themselves. Until there is a uniting force, we are watching the beginnings of a civil war.