Opinion: Divisive Calls

Certain officials and others keep on saying that should the Baghdad security plan fail, the best alternative would be armed public committees that would be tasked with guarding residential areas and public spaces. Those who make such calls would happily see the security plan founder, so that they can deploy their committees, which are nothing more than new militias, or old ones under new names. There are some politicians who hide behind party ideology and – while pretending to confront terror through force of arms – are in fact trying to divide the Iraqi nation with impunity. Those now calling for public committees want to scupper any chance of peace, so that instead the committees engage in sectarian clashes, eventually leading to civil war. Baghdad is becoming a laboratory for trying out political and security experiments as certain individuals seek to achieve bloody ends at the people’s expense.