Our Iraqi Army

Our Iraqi Army is Sadr's Iraqi Army.

SOON after he graduated near the top of his class at the American-run police academy, Alah defected. He did not bother to inform his superiors. The young Iraqi police officer simply walked into a recruitment office in a rundown neighbourhood of Baghdad and signed on for the Mahdi Army, the private militia run by the radical young cleric Moqtada al-Sadr that has been blamed for some of the most savage atrocities in this city in recent weeks.

The 23-year-old absconder described it as “a career move”. The pay was better, the duties less onerous and there was far less chance of being killed.

These switchovers are not only trained for Sadr for free, but they also take with them the tactics book for the Iraqi Army. And, just so you know the Shia section in the Iraqi army isn't the only mess, a thousand Sunni "graduates" "cast off their tunics, and rejected deployment orders."