Why not just arm everybody...

I was reading up on the Iraqi basement torture site found in the ministry building in Baghdad and found some interesting food for thought in The Independent(UK).

You very seldom see American soldiers on the streets of Baghdad now. The Iraqi police are in evidence outside, but so are increasing numbers of militias running their own checkpoints - men in balaclavas or wrap-around sunglasses and headbands, with leather mittens and an array of weapons. An American official acknowledged: "It is getting more and more like Mogadishu every day."

Travelling through the Iraqi capital you meet Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi army; fellow Shias from the Badr Brigade; the Kurdish peshmerga; as well as Western and Iraqi security guards. Then there are Iraqi soldiers and policemen, government paramilitaries, special police commandos and a group which prides itself on being the most feared, the Wolf Brigade of the interior ministry.

So, our occupation of Baghdad has seemingly been abandoned to factional militias. The fabulous new "Iraqi government" also seems to have turned control of their Capital over to what amounts to street gangs. It will add an interesting factor to the upcoming civil war: instead of two or three sides, there might be twenty.

Turf wars and an insurgency in the middle of a civil war, with our guys in the V-ring. Swell. I hope they print up programs frequently so we can make some sense out of it. And can they do please do something about the jawbreaker names of the participants?

A clue as to the origins of how all this is coming about:

Although the US forces had ridden to the rescue on this occasion, many of these units have been created, trained and armed by the Americans. According to reports, $3bn (£1.7bn) out of an $87bn Iraq appropriation that Congress approved last year was earmarked for the creation of paramilitary units to fight the insurgency. Vincent Cannistraro, the CIA's former head of counter-terrorism, said: "They set up little teams of [Navy] Seals and special forces with teams of Iraqis, working with people who were in senior intelligence under the Saddam regime."

Iraqi politicians in the new regime have repeatedly accused the CIA of refusing to hand over control of the recreated Iraqi intelligence service to the Iraqi government, and the paramilitaries are run by Adnan Thabit, allegedly a former CIA "asset".

CIA/SpecOps involvement with Saddam's Gestapo/KGB? Who'da thunk it? Go with what ya know, I guess.

Looks like we've been able to train one Iraqi army battalion, but plenty of "paramilitary" outfits. Good. Cut the motherfuckers loose and let 'em fight it out and bring our guys home. We can go back when it's all over and make nice with the last one standing.