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Op-Ed: US pushing plans to directly arm Sunni tribes and Kurds in Iraq

Navy Cmdr. Elissa Smith, a Pentagon spokesperson, said: “The Sunni Tribal units affiliated with the Iraqi government are currently trained by the [Iraqi Security Forces] and equipped by the [Government of Iraq] but there are plans to provide [Iraq Train and Equip Fund] equipment to tribal fighters in the future, with the approval and coordination of the GoI”. Pentagon officials confirmed that the tribal fighters did not receive training or equipment from the US program designed to prepare Iraqi forces to take on the Islamic State rather than being required to send in US troops. The US Congress approved $1.6 billion for an Iraq Train and Equip Fund in December. It is not clear how much of these funds had been used by the central government to train and equip the Sunni tribal forces in Anbar.

No doubt the US wants to repeat again something in the nature of the Awakening Movement in which the US paid and equipped Sunnis to fight Al Qaeda. While the strategy worked well for a time, after the US stopped footing the bill, the Sunni militias were left to integrate into the Iraqi security forces. This did not work out, and there was more and more conflict between Sunnis and the central government. Some of the present members or supporters of the Islamic State are no doubt disgruntled former Awakening fighters. It is understandable that the central government should not want a well armed Sunni militia in an area with a long history of battle against the Baghdad Shia-dominated government. The US has threatened to withhold aid from the Iraqi government unless aid is distributed appropriately to minority groups such as the Sunni and Kurdish Peshmerga. Appropriately, no doubt means as judged by the Americans.

Perhaps, the US is contemplating an Iraq divided into three parts, a Sunni area including Anbar province and adjacent Sunni majority districts, Kurdistan in the north, and then the rest of Iraq dominated by the Shia majority. Whether this is the aim or not, the US move is likely to promote separatism and clashes with the central government. The Kurds have already said that they are not about to give some parts of the north they have captured back to the central government, including the oil city of Kirkuk.

US law is designed to avoid creating civil conflict of this type by requiring that military aid be provided directly to central governments. The Pentagon has announced that it plans to directly arm Sunni factions:
Direct arms shipments are going to have to get permission from the Iraqi government, likely, though Congress is also trying to circumvent this restriction with the new military funding bill declaring Sunni tribes to be their own country.

A bill passed by the House Armed Services Committee back on April 27 authorized $715 million to Iraqi forces fighting the Islamic State but required at least 25 per cent of that amount to go to Sunni tribal militias, Kurdish peshmerga and a yet-to-be created Iraqi Sunni National Guard. The draft bill also would require after three months that the Iraqi government show progress in giving minorities more say in the government on pain of 75 per cent of the bill being withheld and most of that going directly to Sunnis and Kurds.

With the Ramadi defeat, the Obama administration wants to speed up the arming of Sunni groups but Obama opposes the Republican sponsored bill and it is unlikely that Iraq would consent to direct arming of the Sunnis or Kurds. The US has already a $1.6 billion fund in military aid to Iraq and has distributed $400 million. The lion’s share of that $1.24 billion is to go to Iraqi security forces, with another $354 million to Kurdish militia and finally $24 million to Sunni tribal fighters. The aid is delivered to four coalition training sites and then handed over to Iraqi officials who decide how to distribute it. Iraqi officials insist arms have gone to Sunni tribal fighters. Pentagon officials also say that they have trained peshmerga fighters and several thousand Sunni fighters as well.

The US may be considering ways to counter the influence of Iran in Iraq by adopting a policy that increases the power of Sunnis and Kurds. While there definitely is a problem with Iraqi forces not adequately defending areas they have controlled, the US solution poses even greater risks for the future. Or perhaps many western oil companies may feel they could get a better deal from an independent Kurdistan in northern Iraq than from the Iraq central government.

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