Iraqi police in Basra shed their uniforms, kept their rifles and switched sides

This one is for you, Iraqi patriots! Freedom soon will come! Victory to the Mahdi Army!

Abu Iman barely flinched when the Iraqi Government ordered his unit of special police to move against al-Mahdi Army fighters in Basra.

His response, while swift, was not what British and US military trainers who have spent the past five years schooling the Iraqi security forces would have hoped for. He and 15 of his comrades took off their uniforms, kept their government-issued rifles and went over to the other side without a second thought.

Such turncoats are the thread that could unravel the British Army’s policy in southern Iraq. The military hoped that local forces would be able to combat extremists and allow the Army to withdraw gradually from the battle-scarred and untamed oil city that has fallen under the sway of Islamic fundamentalists, oil smugglers and petty tribal warlords. But if the British taught the police to shoot straight, they failed to instil a sense of unwavering loyalty to the State.

“We know the outcome of the fighting in advance because we already defeated the British in the streets of Basra and forced them to withdraw to their base,” Abu Iman told The Times.

Posted by bacchus
Born in Nysa (in present day Turkey), raised by nymphs and satyrs. Son of Zeus and a mortal named Semele. Youngest of the Olympian gods. Patron god of vines, fruit trees, gardens, agriculture and fertility. Patron god of the stage (the happy and scowling...