Iraq Program Part I

“Program! Getchur Program here! You can’t tell the players without a program!” the man used to call out on our way into Briggs Stadium to watch the Tigers when I was young. That was before they renamed it to Tiger Stadium then, much later, built a new one across the street.

So here’s a quick program on Iraq that Senator McBush can check out since it’s obvious he doesn’t have a clue to what’s going on over there and “doesn’t care what anybody says.”

First, there are three main groups in Iraq Sunni, Shia, and Kurds. The Kurds are a separate ethnic group in the north of Iraq (and the south of Turkey and northwest of Iran). They were semi-autonomous since the Gulf War I in 1991, protected under the cover of the No-Fly Zone. They were the closest things to friends we had in Iraq and where there have been the least problems. I won’t say no problems, but I’ll save that for another time.

Most of the Muslim world, from Morocco to Indonesia is Sunni. Saudi Arabia is Sunni and so is Osama bin Laden (remember him?). The Shia are mostly in Iran and, wouldn’t you know it, Iraq. Yep, Iraq is predominantly Shia by about a two-to-one margin. Saddam was a Sunni, and he put mostly Sunnis in power. He was also pretty brutal in putting down the Shia such that a lot of them had to flee Iraq and live in Iran for some time. So with “democracy” coming their way it was okay with the Shia if the US came in and overthrew Saddam, since they would ascend to power by virtue of their majority. Of course the Sunnis weren’t so thrilled.

When the US took over in 2003, they disbanded the predominantly Sunni military and the police and sent everyone home. Several hundred thousand soldiers went home and took their weapons with them. Right after the US toppled Saddam, people in Iraq realized there were no cops on the street and serious looting began, old scores began to be settled and a general lawlessness set in. Beginning at the neighborhood level, militias were formed to protect the residents since the US couldn’t or wouldn’t do it – although the Oil Ministry building was protected quite well, thank you very much. This was when the genesis of the militias in Iraq occurred. The economy of the country was in shambles with sixty percent unemployment. Militias were able to pay a couple of hundred a month and sometimes there was a couple hundred dollar bounty for killing Americans. The Sunnis formed the core of the resistance to the US occupation. They also attacked the Shia for collaborating with the invader. One thing to remember is there isn’t one group of Sunni insurrectionists. There are a number of groups formed along tribal bases.

Prior to the war, a Jordanian named Zarqawi had spent some time in OBL’s Afghan training camps and was hanging out in northern Iraq, Kurdistan. Remember, this was the area beyond the control of Saddam. He was interested in having his own jihadist franchise, and started his al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, or al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) as its called in the US. The US military actually had him targeted prior to the invasion and could have taken him out, but it was nixed by the administration because he made good propaganda. Anyway, his group created a lot of mayhem in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. It’s important to note that AQI is made up mostly of non-Iraqis. As bad as they are, it’s absurd to think that they can take over Iraq.

Next time: we deal with the Shia and Basra.