Militias in Iraq Provide Security, Wield Political Power, and May Be Tearing the Country Apart – By Katie Bo Williams (Defense One) / Mar 2 2021
The top U.S. commander there said Iraq may be headed for another civil war if the government can’t firm up control.
BAGHDAD, IRAQ — Rogue militia groups threaten to thrust Iraq into civil war, senior U.S. military officials are warning in increasingly stark language.
“I think there’s two major threats to the country of Iraq right now: One is the PMF” — the military abbreviation for the militia groups — “and two is the economy,” said Lt. Gen. Paul Calvert, the commander of the U.S.-led mission in Iraq and Syria. “Both left unattended is going to erode all the gains that have been made, in my mind.”
Iraq’s constantly-shifting militia networks have frustrated American and Iraqi policymakers across multiple administrations. In Washington, the problem is often boiled down to a simple case of Iranian aggression because some of the militia groups take support and occasional direction from Tehran. But the reality is far more complex, senior military officials and analysts in the region say.
The larger problem is that the government of Iraq has “very little” control over the militia groups, Calvert and others said. And although some of the major militia groups have some shared objectives — like the removal of U.S. forces from Iraq — they are also divided over the issue of Iranian influence in Iraq.
