Jim Hoagland makes an interesting point about the militias in his column today:
“The CPA and the White House must also accept that not all Iraqi militias were created equal, or evil. There are Iraqi security forces willing and able to fight against the Baathist remnants, foreign gangs and Shiite brigands who have put sections of the country in flames.
But Kurdistan’s pesh merga commandos and fighters from the Iraqi National Accord, the Iraqi National Congress and other political organizations have been devalued and restrained by the CPA’s apolitical occupation strategy.
Those with a political vision of an Iraq worth fighting for have largely been disqualified from defending it at the side of American forces.
Instead, the CPA championed a hastily trained, three-tier Iraqi internal security force of army, police and civil defense guards vetted and signed up by Americans with no way of verifying the backgrounds of the people they recruited.
The CPA-designed structure crumpled when U.S. Marines launched the siege of Fallujah and fighting flared with Shiite militiamen. Many Iraqi police and troops abandoned their posts.
The important exceptions to this pattern of flight have been kept unpublicized, apparently for operational reasons. The 36th Battalion of the Iraqi Army, fighting under U.S. command, has performed well in Fallujah.
This became known in Baghdad after the unit was praised by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez at a meeting with the Iraqi Governing Council on Monday.
’Shouldn’t we form more like it?’ asked Jalal Talabani, whose Patriotic Union of Kurdistan has joined its once bitter rival, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and Arab political organizations in contributing 700 soldiers to the 36th Battalion. Bremer immediately opposed Talabani’s suggestion, according to meeting participants. Adding militiamen would ‘politicize’ the army, Bremer reportedly said.
Tell that to the Marines, who have suffered heavy casualties as they moved to establish control in Fallujah after taking over from more static U.S. Army units a few weeks ago. Gen. John Abizaid, U.S. theater commander, may have other views on the future. He met on Tuesday with Iraqi political leaders who have contributed troops to the 36th Battalion.”