Dan Murphy, CSM: Does Iraq's military have the 'will to fight?' Its sectarian militias certainly do.
With the fall of Ramadi, the 'new' Iraqi Army continues to crumble. In its place sectarian militias are coming to the fore.
How badly is the civil war in Iraq spiraling out of control? Here's a clue: Baghdad's battle to retake Anbar Province is called "Labaik Ya Hussein."
What does that mean? That the fight in Anbar is now nakedly sectarian. "Ya Hussein" is a cry of veneration and mourning for the prophet Muhammad's grandson, known as Imam Hussein to Shiites. And it is being taken by the Sunni Arab majority in Anbar, and others in Iraq, as signaling a role of conquerors, not liberators, for the Shiite militias leading the fight.
The recent fall of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar and just 70 miles west of Baghdad, to the so-called Islamic State has clearly jolted the US government. It also exposed the false claims from Washington and Baghdad that IS Sunni militants were being pushed back in Anbar and elsewhere in Iraq. While Baghdad has complained there was insufficient US air support at Ramadi, the IS army had no air support at all and fielded fewer combatants than the Iraqi soldiers and police trying to defend the city.
WNU Editor: Iraq's Kurdish Leader Barzani has blamed sectarianism for the rise of the Islamic State .... Kurdish Leader Barzani: Iraq's 'Sectarian Army' Led to ISIS Gains (NBC News) .... and considering how the Iraqi government is now responding to recent ISIS gains in Anbar by sending in Shiite militias, he is probably right.