Iraq's Militias

Two good articles on Iraq this week:

Ron Jacobs on the recent Green Zone proposal to exclude any party from Iraqi elections which has an armed wing. (Hmmmm, I wonder who that could be aimed at?). Jacobs' best quote: "The suggestion that Iraq should pay for its reconstruction assumes that the Iraqis asked to be destroyed by the US military."

Pepe Escobar on the militias, with a good focus on the Kurdish Peshmerga. The Peshmerga have been out of the news for some time now, but their role in stirring the cauldron of ethnic hatred in Iraq has been crucial. There've also been reports of the Peshmerga being used for operations in Southern Iraq, a sure way to increase Shi'a-Kurdish animosity.