Unleash The Peshmerga and the Badr Corps
What armies existed in Iraq when US forces rolled into Baghdad in 2003?
There were three: Saddam’s Army, the Kurdish Peshmerga, and the Shia’ Badr Corps.
The US military rolled over Saddam’s Army in a few short weeks, scattering the fourth largest army in the world, with all their troops, tanks, artillery and aircraft, to the four winds quickly and completely, a clear demonstration of “shock and awe”. It was magnificent.
But, the US did it with help on the inside, from the Peshmerga and the Badr Corps.
Even before US troops entered Iraq, the Kurdish Peshmerga had, with US Special Forces and CIA help, fought Saddam’s army to a standstill, and created their own Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, which they call Kurdistan. You don’t hear about a lot of terrorist attacks in that part of the country because the Peshmerga, the Kurdish militia, has pretty much wiped out the pro-Saddam terrorist groups in that part of Iraq.
In the South, the Shia’ Badr Corps had been fighting Saddam’s army ever since the Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s. The Badr Corps is the military wing of the the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI.) In January 2005, the SCIRI has won the largest portion of votes in the election in Iraq.
It is the Peshmerga and the Badr Corps that have a stake in the future of a new, democratic Iraq. Politically, the Shia’ and the Kurds are in control of the Iraqi government
The policy of arming the Peshmerga in the North has been very successful in wiping out pro-Saddam and Al Qa’ida cells. And, in the Shia’ South, which is dominated by the Badr Corps, neither Al Qa’ida nor pro-Saddam forces have been very successful.
These two militias need to be armed to the teeth and brought into the Sunni Triangle to hunt down and destroy all Ba’athist and Al Qa’ida terror cells, just like they so effectively have done in the North and the South. This would allow US forces to move out of the center of Iraq and instead focus on closing the border with Syria, and shutting down the the dangerous flow of Al Qa’ida and Ba’athist terrorists that has been killing so many Iraqis up to now.
There were three: Saddam’s Army, the Kurdish Peshmerga, and the Shia’ Badr Corps.
The US military rolled over Saddam’s Army in a few short weeks, scattering the fourth largest army in the world, with all their troops, tanks, artillery and aircraft, to the four winds quickly and completely, a clear demonstration of “shock and awe”. It was magnificent.
But, the US did it with help on the inside, from the Peshmerga and the Badr Corps.
Even before US troops entered Iraq, the Kurdish Peshmerga had, with US Special Forces and CIA help, fought Saddam’s army to a standstill, and created their own Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, which they call Kurdistan. You don’t hear about a lot of terrorist attacks in that part of the country because the Peshmerga, the Kurdish militia, has pretty much wiped out the pro-Saddam terrorist groups in that part of Iraq.
In the South, the Shia’ Badr Corps had been fighting Saddam’s army ever since the Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s. The Badr Corps is the military wing of the the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI.) In January 2005, the SCIRI has won the largest portion of votes in the election in Iraq.
It is the Peshmerga and the Badr Corps that have a stake in the future of a new, democratic Iraq. Politically, the Shia’ and the Kurds are in control of the Iraqi government
The policy of arming the Peshmerga in the North has been very successful in wiping out pro-Saddam and Al Qa’ida cells. And, in the Shia’ South, which is dominated by the Badr Corps, neither Al Qa’ida nor pro-Saddam forces have been very successful.
These two militias need to be armed to the teeth and brought into the Sunni Triangle to hunt down and destroy all Ba’athist and Al Qa’ida terror cells, just like they so effectively have done in the North and the South. This would allow US forces to move out of the center of Iraq and instead focus on closing the border with Syria, and shutting down the the dangerous flow of Al Qa’ida and Ba’athist terrorists that has been killing so many Iraqis up to now.
posted by Gary W Pearson at 10:14 PM
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