Protect me against my friends, and I will take care of my enemies

Another in a series of harrowing reports written by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad appears in today's Guardian. (I pointed to another one previously, which you'll find here.)

A few excerpts:

"We ask the families of the terrorists for ransom money," said Fadhel. "And after they pay the ransom we kill them anyway."

Kidnapping in Baghdad these days is as much about economics as retribution or sectarian hatred. Another Shia man close to the Mahdi Army told me: "They kidnap 10 Sunnis, they get ransom on five, and kill them all, in each big kidnap operation they make at least $50 000, it's the best business in Baghdad."

***

In one operation Fadhel took part in last summer, Iraqi interior ministry commandos attacked a Sunni area in Dora called "Arab Jubour". The raid involved 28 pickup trucks, he told me. Of them 16 were ministry of interior, the rest Mahdi Army.

The new Bush plan to secure Baghdad gives a major role to the Iraqi army and police units in securing Baghdad. Few in the city expect that these predominantly Shia forces will seriously challenge their fellow Shia.

***

"The Iranians are helping us not because they like us, but because they hate the US."

The help comes in different forms. "We get weapons from them, mortar shells, RPG rounds, sometimes they give us weapons for free sometimes we have to buy. Depends on who is doing the deal," said the same commander.

***

"We control most of Baghdad, our main enemy is the Americans," said Fadhel. Then he paused for a second and continued: "Also we can't trust the other Shia factions. Imam Ali says 'God please protect me against my friends and I will take care of my enemies.'"

What does Abdul-Ahad's commentary suggest to me?

What actually seems to be happening in Iraq does not seem to fit neatly into many of the analytical frameworks which are being applied to it. A 'clash of civilisations' it's not. Nor is it, strictly speaking, a pure insurgency against foreign occupiers. A civil war of some kind, clearly, is occurring; however, there seem to be serious divisions within both ethnic 'sides' as well as what seems to be something which looks as much as mafia-like structures as ethnic militias.

Religion, seems to be a key element here...but to what extent? Once the outsider-insider dynamic gets going between groups, something like real 'theology' seems rather too high-minded a factor. If anything, it seems to be a cover for more basic motivations.

Iraq has become part of a wider, regional struggle for power, but one in which the contours of allegiance are far from clear-cut.

And, finally, America's continuing involvement (whether the promised 'surge' occurs or not) seems to increasingly look like the support of a brutal Shia-dominated state built upon revenge and barely concealed gangsterism.

Excellent: on to victory we go...