Dahr Jamail writes from Amman, Jordan
June 10, 2005
State Sponsored Civil War
Yesterday at a conference in Baghdad, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a prominent
Shia leader who is also the head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic
Revolution in Iraq announced, ?In gratitude to the efforts, sacrifices
and heroic positions of our brothers and brave sons from the Badr
Organization.?
?We must give them the priority in bearing administrative and government
responsibilities especially in the security field,? he added, while the
?President? of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, listened on.
The Badr Organization (formerly known as the Badr Brigade) was formed by
al-Hakim?s brother in the ?80?s to fight Saddam Hussein. It has long
since received funding and other ?support? from Iran.
While civilians in Fallujah, Mosul, Ramadi, Baquba, Baghdad, Haditha and
other cities in Iraq continue to complain of being beaten, looted and
humiliated by the members of the Iraqi Army who are members of both the
Badr Organization and Kurdish Peshmerga, these militias now have the
overt backing of the interim Iraqi ?government.?
It is also being reported that members of the Badr Organization, who are
essentially running much of the ?security? in southern Iraq at this
point, have been instituting Sharia law. Thus, women are reporting being
threatened with death or rape if they attend university, and more
conservative clothing rules are being enforced.
Recently a Sunni cleric was assassinated in the south.
Harith al-Dhari, the head of the influential Sunni group the Association
of Muslim Scholars (AMS), recently accused the Badr of killing members
of the AMS, when he bluntly announced, ?It is the Badr Brigades which is
responsible for these killings.?
One of my Iraqi friends here in Amman recently told me that Sunni who
live in the south are being pressured by members of the Badr
Organization to relocate elsewhere. It should also be noted that the
Badr came back to Iraq on the heels of the invaders.
?You and your (Kurdish) brothers are the heroes of liberating Iraq,?
added Talabani at the aforementioned conference.
So we have the US-backed Iraqi ?government? overtly (they have been
doing this covertly for quite some time) pitting Shia and Kurdish
militias against the primarily Sunni resistance. State
sponsored/propagated civil war-although most Iraqis continue to fear and
loath the idea, and so many Iraqi political and religious organizations
continue to work tirelessly to avert the worsening of this now low-grade
civil war.
Meanwhile, violence continues across Iraq. Car bombs are a daily
occurrence, yet now we have seen motorcycle bombs, push-cart bombs,
donkey bombs, donkey-cart bombs, dog bombs, human bombs, bicycle bombs
and recently two Iraqi policemen dying from eating poisoned watermelon.
Roadside bombs continue to take their toll on US soldiers and are now
the number one killer of occupation forces. At least 1,679 have died in
Iraq since the invasion, along with roughly 100 times as many Iraqis.
I?ve been getting some interesting emails, indicative of sagging morale,
from American?s serving or about to serve in Iraq, including vets...
One man who is a security contractor writes, ?Many nationalitiess from
the planet, many cowboys. I feel like Tonto. Some of these boys are
psycho. Been there done that on the international radar.?
I received an email a ways back from a veteran who said, ?I am a former
soldier that does not agree with what is going on in Iraq. I do NOT
agree with the current administration on most issues, but especially the
way they are going about this illegal and immoral war.
I am deeply ashamed of what my country has done, and I am determined to
do whatever I can to help those few brave reporters like yourself that
are trying to uncover the truth to do so.?
Like many people, he assumed I am Iraqi because of my name, even though
I?m 3rd generation Lebanese. He?d included some helpful information for
me to use, then added,
?For what it is worth, I apologize for the actions of my country. I
don't consider myself a traitor or unpatriotic, but what I am seeing is
so very wrong on so many levels that it is really eating at me, so much
so that I felt compelled to write you about what I know. I?m so very
sorry...?
Another soldier who will be deployed to Iraq this summer said, ?I
personally believe it was the wrong war?we should have concentrated more
on Afghanistan.?
I wrote him back and told him I honored his desire to serve his country,
but wished he had better leadership than the current US administration
who led the country into Iraq with lies. He responded,
?I feel honored to meet a great American like you. You know man,
sometimes we guys feel betrayed by our own government. I personally
signed up to serve my country not to serve any particular leader.?
Another US soldier in Iraq right now writes, ?Do I think it (the war)
was started for moral reasons? Of course not.?
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