Arming everybody

What a wacky world.

Iraq's government is studying a request from some local insurgent leaders to supply them with weapons so they can turn on the heavily armed foreign fighters who were once their allies, according to two Iraqi lawmakers.

Leaders claiming to represent about 11 insurgent groups asked for weapons to fight foreign al-Qaeda elements in Iraq, said Haider al-Ibadi, a Shiite lawmaker and member of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa Party.

"They want to take part in the war against terrorists," said al-Ibadi, who supports the proposal. "They claim they could wipe out the terrorists and work with the government."

Now, considering that "foreign fighters" supposedly comprise a very small percentage of insurgents, this would seem to be a high-risk proposal from the point of view of the Iraqi government and the US. But if one believes one's own political rhetoric that the ongoing war is perpetrated mainly by "terrorists," then it would be entirely consistent to arm Iraqi insurgents. Given the broad unpopularity of the American occupation and the Green Zone government, however, it would be insane. We'll see how this plays out.

See here too:

The Iraqi government's list of the 41 most wanted fugitives suggests that former members of Saddam Hussein's regime form the backbone of the insurgency despite attention paid to the role of religious extremists such as al-Qaida in Iraq.

The list, released last weekend, includes at least 21 former regime figures, among them Saddam's chief lieutenant, his wife, eldest daughter, two nephews and a cousin - allegedly financiers of the insurgency.

Only five of the 41 names are clearly identified as members of al-Qaida's local branch.

That reinforces the impression shared by a number of analysts that ex-Baath party members and former regime figures still play a key role in the insurgency.