A long & informative article detailing the Mehdi Army’s strategy of “converting Sadr City into a ‘liberated area’, in the classic guerrilla warfare model.” The report also contends that a US withdrawal from Iraq wouldn’t necessarily lead to chaos on the local level: alternative power structures like the Sadrists, Kurdish peshmerga & Sunni insurgents would almost certainly step into the vacuum.
The al-Sadr organization is attempting to construct a coherent “dual” government that replaces the central government and which administers the usual set of public services – from traffic control to apprehending street criminals – within limits set by their inability to coordinate with a national government. This proto-government has been particularly assiduous in addressing the number one problem of public order, street crime, and has actually cooperated with the local police in this campaign.
The Sadrists have been surprisingly successful in co-opting the Iraqi police, by rewarding them for working on community issues and fighting them when they participate in efforts to suppress the rebel political-military structure. American military complaints about the unreliability of their Iraqi trainees is actually a reflection of successfully applied guerrilla policy.
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