The Fighting In Iraq

The drive to neutralize Shi'ite armed groups - particularly those affiliated with Moqtada al-Sad - continues in Iraq, with ongoing fighting in Basra and Baghdad, the latter focused on Sadr City. PM al-Maliki has extended the deadline for armed fighters to turn in their weapons to 8Apr08. For whatever that is worth. The real question is not "will these people give up?" it is "will we leave them in a condition in which they cannot be a threat in the future?"

This story in the WPost follows a group of Sadrists in Sadr City as they fight against US forces. Aside from the question of whether it is appropriate for an American paper to carry a story from the point of view of people trying to kill Americans (I don't think the Post had reporters riding with SS tankers in Normandy or flying with Japanese naval airmen at Midway) the article has one bit that is interesting (as well as giving an idea of how effective this pressure is on the Sadrists);

For all those who think that Iran is not supplying enemy forces in Iraq;

As a heavy barrage erupted outside his parents' house, Abu Mustafa al-Thahabi, a political and military adviser to the Mahdi Army of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, rushed through the purple gate and took shelter behind the thick walls. He had just spoken with a fighter by cellphone. "I told him not to use that weapon. It's not effective," he said, referring to a rocket-propelled grenade. "I told him to use the IED, the Iranian one," he added, using the shorthand for an improvised explosive device. "This is more effective."

The story also gives some insight into the inner workings of the Sadrist militias and the character of the fighters. It strikes me that they are warriors, not soldiers. Warriors may be effective fighters, may be brave, may even win at times...but they can't stand up to soldiers. Soldiers are professionals, men who exist in the context of a system devoted to the execution of state policy. Warriors exist in a culture of personal honor, or, in the case of the Islamists, religious duty. Of course, there are many other motives. Communal duty, money, adventure (one of the time honored reasons men fight other men); but it is important to recognize the differing cultural contexts in which we and our enemies fight. Recognition of the differing motives for fighting and the systems that support warriors and soldiers gives us insights into how to defeat the enemy.