Shia Militias are no better than ISIS
Allying with Shia Militias cannot work, they are just as vicious and evil as ISIS militants.
A video released on Sunday shows Shia militia members burning an alleged member of ISIS alive. The specific Shia militia is said to be that of the Imam Ali Brigades, a pro-government militia. Although this is the first video of Shia militia members doing something like this, there were reports back in January of this type of behavior from these Shia militia fighters.
This was also the second video released on the weekend. In the first video, released on Saturday, it shows supposed Iraqi military members execute a member of ISIS in front of an Iraqi flag. There is some speculation that this is, instead, is a propaganda video by ISIS to turn more Iraqi’s to their side.
Though, as Buck Sexton says above, the Shia militias have been “useful” we need to remember that the Imam Ali Brigades are part of the large Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, specifically the regimen responsible for southern Iraq. The Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq is an Iranian backed militia and were fighting the U.S. until late 2011, in 2012 they promised to lay down their arms and got involved in Iraqi politics instead… they became the Al-Sadiqunn Bloc and were only able to secure 1 of 328 parliament seats in the 2014 Iraq elections. Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq also has a branch located in Syria, where they back the Assad regime.
Iraq has long been a Sunni Muslim ruled land, marred by conflict with Shia Muslims. The past aside, the most recent woes with ISIS and lack of support from the US have driven the Iraqis and Shia to work together. This new found spirit of “togetherness” did not stop Shia militants from looting and killing when allied forces took back Tikrit.
ISIS is gobbling up Sunni Muslims as recruits, mainly due to the propensity of the government to align with Shia Muslims. This becomes very muddy water for the U.S. as they’ve already backed the Free Syrian Army (some of which have joined ISIS), setting us against these Shia militants in Syria.
“Three tours in Iraq commanding troops who were brutalized by some of these Shia militias … I will not — and I hope we never — coordinate or cooperate with the Shia militias” -Army General Llyod Austin, Chief of US CENTCOM, March 2015
Iraqi’s shouldn’t have to get in bed with Evil in Shia Militants to fight Evil in ISIS militants. These Shia militants are the same groups who put up posters and billboards supporting Iranian Grand Ayatollah Khamenei throughout southern Iraq in the fall of 2012. In many cases they were the ones responsible for injuring and killing U.S. troops throughout Iraq, just to spread disorder and “bleed” the “American occupiers.”
The argument should be made, by leaders in the US, that the time to get into Iraq and help to stabilize the area is now. We fought too hard and lost too much life from 2003–2011 to let it be taken over by extremists from either sect of Islam now.
