General David Petraeus has stated that Shiite militias pose the most significant threat to the security of Iraq. The General considers the Islamic State as a secondary threat to Iraq, despite undeniable facts which prove that ISIL’s terrorist campaign in Iraq and Syria has led to a brutal decline to the quality of lives in the two nations as ISIL fighters have brutally murdered civilians, police officers, religious leaders and children, as well as enslaving women, girls and children. ISIL has also embarked on a mission to destroy the history of Mesopotamia and the Levant region, and substitute it with their Wahhabi version of history.
The Shiite militias have preserved the national government as well as prevented the ISIL from advancing into Baghdad. Their emergence was as a result of the collapse of the Iraqi National Army under the pressure of ISIL’s military offensive across the Sunni heartland of Iraq. Iran entered into the Iraqi conflict in order to stabilize the beleaguered Iraqi Government as well as contain ISIL expansion across Iraq and Syria.
Iran does have regional ambitions, and their foreign policy which is geared towards realigning the regional equilibrium has alarmed neighboring Sunni autocracies, and they have countered Iran’s move by covertly supporting ISIL. General David Petraeus statements have been influenced by the existing geopolitical dynamics as well as US alliance with the Sunni autocracies; but the statements do not have any inherent accuracy on their own. Such political statements are aimed at assuaging the fear of the undemocratic and oppressive Arab autocracies, that US will prevent Iraq from falling within the Persian sphere of influence.
