The Battle for Iraq from Within: Political Foes
With billions of US dollars and many American lives, the Iraqi war militarily, is fading as 2011 approaches. While we did free the country from a tyrant, the next year will truly be the ultimate test for the numerous political parties under Maliki.
Will the democracy sustain itself or will Iraq fall into an Iran type government?
All of the diverse groups have common goals: kick the US out, gaining power for their own agenda. The groups include the Baathist party, home to Saddam Hussein; an al-Qaeda linked party that wants to emulate Iranian government, and the Shiite party which are strongly supported with money by Iran, which advances iran's interests in Iraq: oil and islam.
We set them up in a democratic way and now we can only sit on the sidelines for the next year and see how our friend will fall in 2011 and beyond. Like a son o daughter, Daddy cannot always be there to bail them out should they go a different way.
As parties become marginalized in the political process, they cause mayhem with bombs and terrorist attacks and since the Shiites have been in power, the Sunnis are to blame. Of the Sunni groups, there is:
Islamic State of Iraq-tied to al-Qaeda but is Iraqi. They want an Iran clone for government.
High Command for Jihad - this is a group of Sunnis consisting of 22 cells but largely is Baathist. They want the old way, its leader is Hussein's deputy, Izzat al-Douri.
Ansar al-Sunna- a more extremist group of Kurds and want Islamic law for Iraq.
The main Shiite groups are:
Promised Day Brigades- they hate Americans. Their leader is Moqtada al-Sadr.
League of the Righteous - they hate Americans. Loosely tied to Iranian interests.
Brigades of Hezbollah - this group is directly an arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. They want an Iranian-style clerical government.
From American interests, it seems to be a selection of the "best from the worse" that Iraq can offer. Unfortunately, the Promised Day Brigades has been most successful and now provided support to Maliki with a condition: that many of the governmental positions there go to members of this pro-Iran party. Thus, this party is using its political clout to gradually take control of the majority of seats in Iraq's parliament.
Iran may win without firing a shot via the Iraqi political process that America put in place. Talk about ironic.
