Badr Corps avoids crackdown on Militia

As is often the case Juan Cole has an interesting analysis of the recent attack on militias by the U.S. and Maliki. The U.S. often stresses the Iranian connections of the Mahdi army of Sadr but at the same time ignores the closer connections between the Badr Brigades and Iran. The reason is transparent but will never be clear to the U.S. public who read mainstream media. The Badr brigades are connected to the Maliki govt. Iran and Iraq actually have good relations right now. It is the U.S. that is making all the fuss! If anything Sadr is less pro-Iranian than the Badr group. It is just that to hedge its bets Iran tries to foster good relations with Sadr as well.
The U.S. and the Iraqi govt. have in effect violated the terms of Sadr's ceasefire and now it seems they are only selectively acknowledging a second ceasefire brokered by Iran. Operations continue against Sadr City. Even Saddam had trouble controlling Sadr City so how likely is it that Maliki and the U.S. can do so successfully. A likely result is an increase in U.S. casualties perhaps the only possible way that the U.S. can be persuaded to withdraw unless Americans begin to draw a connection between their deteriorating economic situation and war costs.

Likewise, the ISG pointed out that the Badr Corps paramilitary was trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and is close to Tehran. (See below). It fought on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's side in the recent Basra fighting. In other words, the government side was the pro-Iranian side. The Mahdi Army and Sadr neighborhood militia forces they attacked were largely Iraqi nativists who bad-mouth Iran. Fiderer points out that the ISG report had already diagnosed this syndrome. The Bush team did propaganda, pointedly declining to name Badr as an Iranian client and blaming Iran for the Mahdi Army's violence. In fact, the violence came as a response to violations of the cease fire by the US and the Iraqi government, which took advantage of it to arrest Mahdi Army commanders (that's a ceasefire?)

The key role of Iran in backing the Badr Corps (which Ryan Crocker and Gen Petraeus pointedly did not condemn, and Senator Lindsay Graham actually defended!) is demonstrated by the following:




' Al-Sharqiyah, Al-Iraqiyah Roundup: Political Blocs Express Support for Government
Iraq -- OSC Summary
Thursday, April 10, 2008

Dubai Al-Sharqiyah Television in Arabic . . carries between 1400 GMT and 2000 GMT on 10 April the following . . :

-- "The Badr Corps Command took a series of quick measures to protect itself from any possible military campaign against all militias in Iraq. A high-ranking official at the Interior Ministry, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the Badr Corps withdrew its key commanders to Iran in the past few days after it entered a new batch of fighters, around 1500 it total, into the Interior Ministry services. '