Iraq's war of the warlords

Iraq's war of the warlords
Globe Editorial
September 4, 2007


WHEN the radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Sadr called last week for a freeze on his Mahdi Army's operations, it might have been tempting to take it as a positive step toward reducing violence and promoting stability in Iraq. But even if his directive is heeded by most components of the far-from-unitary Mahdi Army, any such timeout will only be a tactical pause to let Sadr's forces regroup. It hardly portends a transformation of the basic situation in Iraq.

Iraq is a smashed state. Indeed, the government housed in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone is practically irrelevant to the multifarious power struggles fought in the streets by disparate militias and gangs.

The fracturing of Iraq has had tragic consequences for Iraqis who lost their families, their homes, and their communities amid the anarchy. Before the war, many Iraqis had hoped that a pluralist sense of national identity could be cultivated in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein's overthrow. That illusion is long since lost. And however the blame is apportioned for Iraq's shattering, the desolating reality is that Iraq has devolved into a collection of separate cities and regions ruled by sectarian or criminal militias - and the warlords who command the men with guns.

This is the background to Sadr's call for a temporary halt to armed operations by his militia. The Mahdi Army fought murderous battles last week with their main Shi'ite rivals, the Iranian-trained Badr Organization, in the holy city of Najaf during solemn Shi'ite religious ceremonies. The bloodshed tainted the Mahdi Army's reputation. It gave the lie to Sadr's efforts to depict himself as the pious heir of revered Shi'ite clerics, a leader who defends poor Shi'ites but nevertheless remains a nonsectarian Iraqi nationalist.

The Mahdi Army's murder of Sunnis and its ruthless uprooting of Sunni families from mixed Baghdad neighborhoods have not harmed Sadr's reputation in the Shi'ite slums of Baghdad. He could attribute those depredations to rogue elements. But there was no disguising the disrespect for religious proprieties and the power-lust shown in the gang warfare in Najaf against the Badr Organization, the militia of Abdul Aziz Hakim, Sadr's rival for control of Iraq's oil-rich south.

~snip~

Because Iraq has been sundered into separate fiefdoms and has descended into Somalia-style warlordism, there is no identifiable enemy over whom President Bush may claim victory. There are now many different wars in Iraq, but none that America can win.


Rest of article at: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/09/04/iraqs_war_of_the_warlords/

Unfortunately, it is a useless skill, and very expensive to carry out, too.