Sunnis form their own militias in fight for Baghdad

<snip>

But as 3,700 extra US troops were deployed on the streets of Baghdad its terrified citizens, having lost faith in the Iraqi security forces, are forming their own militias.

The Times learnt yesterday that Tareq al-Hashemi, Iraq’s Sunni Vice-President, is forming a unit of the National Guard that will act as his personal bodyguard and fend off attacks against Addumiyah, a Sunni district surrounded by overwhelmingly Shia districts.

It will be the first official Sunni militia group and a counter to security forces that have been heavily infiltrated by Shia militias.

<snip>

A young Sunni from west Baghdad, who refused to be identified, said that recruiting had already started for Mr al-Hashemi’s group. The initial aim was to sign up 350 former army personnel who are to be trained as part of the Defence Ministry, which will also outfit and arm them. They were being offered $700 a month.

“We all know the Shia are recruiting in their districts across the city, firstly to kill Sunnis and secondly to divide the country,” said the 26-year-old man, who said that his shop had been closed after Shia militiamen within the police force issued death threats against him and other Sunni shopkeepers in west Baghdad.

“It’ll be called a personal security guard unit for Tareq al-Hashemi to give it official cover and secure funding, but on the ground it’ll be a Sunni militia,” said the source, who is thinking of signing up.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2302811,00.html

Okay, we now have the blues to go against the grays. Do we now call it a civil war?

Yeah, some of us started calling it a civil war when Riverbend said the factions of the official gov't were each running their own death squads.

Chucklenuts said yesterday that it isn't a civil war because the government institution hasn't broken down. But during this country's civil war, I recall Lincoln's presidency being very intact. So my question is, are you my mommy?

apart then B. civil war hadn't happened in the country yet.

however as you pointed out -- our own gov. functioned for our civil war -- viet nam had TWO govs functioning -- various civil wars in africa had their govs functioning in the country of origin -- etc

now i don't know about your mommy -- but i am your daddy.

From Harper's:

The rise of the death squads corresponds almost precisely to the April 2005 appointment of Bayan Jabr as interior minister in Iraq's transitional government. The Interior Ministry, which is something like a combined FBI and Department of Homeland Security, controls billions of dollars and more than 100,000 men in police and paramilitary units. Jabr was a former high-ranking member of the Iranian-backed Badr Brigade, the military arm of the fundamentalist Shiite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) that is now the dominant political force in the country. After taking over the Interior Ministry, he quickly purged it of Sunnis, and members of the Badr Brigade were widely incorporated into the ministry's police and paramilitary units.

Jabr—who in May of this year was named finance minister in a new government headed by Nuri al-Maliki—has disavowed any personal or institutional responsibility for violence committed by the death squads. He has now acknowledged that some groups operated within the Interior Ministry while he headed it, but he insists that they were few in number; he blames much of the sectarian killing on terrorists “using the clothes of the police or the military.” At a press conference last November that followed the discovery of the torture chamber in an Interior Ministry building, Jabr said, “You can be proud of our forces. respect human rights.” (For this article, Jabr did not respond to requests for comment sent to his press office in Iraq.)

NT!

doesn't want those fancy and expensive Blackwater guards?

we can't really even get any real "human" intelligence because to do so would mean recruiting IRAQIs to risk their lives for American intelligence (no doubt we have some poor fools doing the job), but to do that right, they'd have to actually trust us. To trust us...

That would be a tall issue. See, because I don't trust us. But if we wanted them to trust us, the least they'd have to be assured of, is that when the shit hits the fan, we won't be on the first helicopter out.

So, in a funny kind of way, we can't prevent things from getting much worse if we leave. On the other hand, we can't prevent things from getting worse if we keep our options open to be able to leave when we want. Believe it or not, though, leaving won't make things better (except possibly for ourselves, and then only temporarily). Damned if we do, damned if we don't. Some spot you've gotten us into, again, George.

In fact, here is the new Ken Burns timeline of the American brink of Civil War:

1860 brink of Civil War
1861 start of the brink of Civil War
1862 brink of Civil War continues
1863 edging closer to the brink of Civil War
1864 on the brink of Civil War
1865 Lincoln assisinated, Civil War averted

:rofl: