Warlords annointed by Bremer
The WP reports that the US will create a new paramilitary force to fight terrorism in Iraq, and that it will draw for its personnel on the militias of five important political groupings in Iraq:
“The five parties that will contribute militiamen are Alawi’s Iraqi National Accord, Ahmed Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress, the Shiite Muslim Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and two large Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Kurdish members will be drawn from the ranks of pesh merga fighters who defended autonomous Kurdish areas from former president Saddam Hussein’s army, officials said.”
Ghazi al-Yawar, a Sunni member of the IGC, told the LA Times that this was a very bad idea, and that the militias should be disbanded rather than being legitimized.
Al-Yawar is right, of course. This step is ominous, moreover, because this genderamerie will report to the Interior Ministry, which is dominated by the appointees of ex-Baathist Iyad al-Alawi.