The 100,000 strong Sunni Awakening and Sons of Iraq security initiatives were key to decimating AQI and protecting Sunni neighborhoods from Shia militia reprisal attacks during the height of the Iraq War.
This force was so effective that then-Prime Minister Maliki considered it a threat to Shia control of Baghdad. The Shia strongman eventually dismantled, disarmed, and targeted its leaders leaving it vulnerable to reprisal attacks by AQI and Shia militias.
And now ISIS — the latest and strongest iteration of AQI — and Shia militias are threatening Sunni tribesmen.
The 100,000 strong Sunni Awakening and Sons of Iraq security initiatives were key to decimating AQI and protecting Sunni neighborhoods from Shia militia reprisal attacks during the height of the Iraq War.
This force was so effective that then-Prime Minister Maliki considered it a threat to Shia control of Baghdad. The Shia strongman eventually dismantled, disarmed, and targeted its leaders leaving it vulnerable to reprisal attacks by AQI and Shia militias.
And now ISIS — the latest and strongest iteration of AQI — and Shia militias are threatening Sunni tribesmen.
I was in the meeting when Maliki’s Deputy Director of the Office of the Commander and Chief (OCINC) Dr. Bassima al-Jaidri’s jaw dropped. Dr. Bassima then shot daggers at the U.S. general as she said, “Who gave you permission to build a 100k strong Sunni army of insurgents?”
This Sunni force was funded and armed by the U.S., and Maliki was convinced this force could some day turn its weapons on Baghdad at the behest of the U.S. He consequently set out to end the paid militia in 2007 and succeeded in 2011.
Maliki was subsequently key to creating a Shia awakening with Iranian-backed militias in the lead. After all, it was Maliki who announced the creation of the People’s Mobilization Units (PMUs) or Hash’d al-Sha’abi in Arabic to fight ISIS.

Current Prime Minister Haider Abadi should be asking the same question of Iran that Maliki asked the U.S. in 2007: Are you building a coup force?
Iran is now funding and providing arms to 100,000 Shia who are joining Iranian-backed Shia militias under the umbrella of Population Mobilization Units (PMUs).
These men do not answer to Abadi — they answer to Hadi al-Ameri, leader of the Iranian-backed Badr Corps. And he answers to Qassem Soleimani, Commander of the IRGC Qods Force.
Al-Ameri commands the PMUs and credits Tehran and Soleimani for preventing Baghdad from falling to ISIS. He openly criticizes PM Abadi and pledges loyalty to Soleimani.
Muhandis is regularly pictured at the table with Prime Minister Abadi, Hadi al-Ameri, and on the battlefield with Soleimani. He recently traveled with Abadi to Iran.
Both the Obama Administration and the Abadi government have done their best to sell Iraq’s PMUs as legitimate forces that answer to the Prime Minister – even though they do not.
When an organization is led by leaders from the Iranian-backed militias of the Badr Corps, Kataib Hizbollah, and Asaib Ahl al-Haq, there is no question the organization is a militia on steroids in the service of Tehran.
They will not retake Mosul or Ramadi, they are designed to negate Sunni threats to areas Tehran sees as strategic - Mosul and Ramadi are not.
This is a willing and capable fighting force when Shia strategic areas are threatened - the problem is this force sees Baghdad as the prize, Sunnis as the threat, and ISIS as a great cover to get all you can while you can.
The effort to dismantle the Sunni Sons of Iraq began the day it was created. The Sons of Iran were created to dismantle the state of Iraq, and they aren't going anywhere Tehran doesn't want them to.