64 Sunni clerics of the Association of Muslim Scholars and the Iraqi Islamic Party gave a fatwa calling for Iraqi Sunnis to join the military and police. Juan Cole comments that , “Unlike Sistani’s this ruling does potentially change things,” which is rather an understatement, since the Sunnis have resisted recruitment into these organizations en masse, generally viewing those who participate as traitors and puppets of the occupation.
Cole goes on, “The Sunni clerics seem to have figured out that boycotting the new government is just a form of self-marginalization, and if Sunnis aren’t in the army and police, then those forces will be largely Shiite and Kurdish.” Cole doesn’t explain why he thinks the Sunnis joining the army and police means they’re suddenly doing a 180 degree turnabout and cooperating with the government they’ve relentlessly maintained is illegitimate, but it’s a conclusion more optimistic than is warranted, considering the context.
Swopadamus’s speculation as to the Sunni motives behind this sudden change of MO is more skeptical,
It’s also noteworthy that the statement apparently says nothing about supporting the new Iraqi government politically. Could the call for Sunni Muslims to join the army be a way to keep Anbar and other Sunni-majority provinces from being patrolled by predominantly Shiite military units? Assuming that new Sunni recruits are allowed to serve in their home regions, with fresh training and weaponry, they would be far more prepared to fight against the government when if the entire new scheme collapses into civil war among various sectarian/party militias.
The answer to swopa’s first question is surely yes. As for his second question, try to imagine a police squad from Ramadi patrolling Basra. Yeah, me neither.
In fact, there is precedent for a Sunni military unit in Iraq during the US occupation. It was called the Fallujah Brigade, and it was so successful (from the occupation’s point of view) that it lasted a whopping four months before the US military “disbanded” it. (They got to keep the weapons, vehicles and armor.)
According to numerous accounts, some Brigade members almost immediately integrated themselves among the various mujahideen resistance outfits that dominate the city to this day, collecting paychecks from the U.S. military all the while.
One Brigade leader expressed exasperation at the disbanding of the unit. “We don’t know where to go now after this dismissal by the American troops and the Iraqi interim government,” Brig. Gen. Tayseer Latief told the Times. “They leave us no other option but to join the resistance.”
So, will the Sunnis now flock to the Iraqi Army and police and form up some new Fallujah Brigades? At the moment, the 101st Fighting Keyboarders, Good News Division, is touting this as a positive development, seeing the Sunni fatwa as election-induced Sunni recognition of their marginalized, left-out status resulting in their sheepish cooperation with the Iraqi political process, rather than as a tactical move aimed at creating local Sunni police and Army units, armed at US expense, concerned more with the defense of their own territory and people than with the success of the government formed under US occupation.
Well, it’s not as if the War Party has gotten anything about Iraq right yet. I doubt they’re going to ruin their perfect record in this case.