Transportation Minister Hadi al-Ameri, the leader of Iraq’s most powerful Shi’ite militia, the Badr Brigade, today dismissed talk of an immediate counteroffensive to retake the Anbar capital of Ramadi from ISIS, saying the talk was “laughable” and that it was unrealistic to expect his militia and others to immediately push into the city.
“We don’t want to shed the blood of our youth so cheaply for people who say they don’t want us,” Ameri said, adding that Sunni rivals need to learn that they cannot defeat ISIS without Shi’ite aid, and that “the Americans cannot save Ramadi.”
After the fall of Ramadi, Iraqi Premier Hayder Abadi made an immediate call to arms to the Shi’ite militias, and some 3,000 massed around the area between Ramadi and Baghdad. The forces have clashed with ISIS, but predictions from Abadi that they’d retake Ramadi quickly have not come to pass.
Ameri is hugely influential, both within the Shi’ite dominated government and the militia movement, and it is unusual for him to be seen so directly contradicting official policy, suggesting there is likely to be a shift in official policy in the days to come.
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Finally, someone there who is not afraid to state the obvious to those who presume to make policy. Now, what are the chances anyone here will listen to him?
The Western media has constantly tried to demonise the Shia (militias) in Iraq, and to a large extent the propaganda has worked, with ignorant people lapping up the misinformation.
It would appear that certain politicians would like to return to the days when the Baathist Sunnis were in charge – despite being a minority, and the Kurds, Marsh Arabs and Shia kept under the boot.
I honestly cannot criticise Al Ameri for his views, because it is largely due to the Shia militias and the Kurds that the onslaught of ISIL has been curbed.
Had the intentions of the US and the Gulf States been more honest, then ISIL may well have been destroyed long beofre now.