Iraqi forces are committing war crimes in their fight against ISIS. ABC

Iraqi special forces drag an ISIS fighter. ABC News/Instagram

The U.S. government is accusing Iraqi forces of war crimes in their fight against ISIS. ABC News. Dozens of images posted on social media show Iraqi forces committing atrocities. The accounts of these atrocities have led to some Iraqi units lose their funding. Under the so called "Leahy law", the U.S. government is forbidden from providing aid to units that commit human rights abuses. Iraq is investigating the claims. The atrocities include beheading, killing of civilians, and even the murder of children. The crimes are not just being committed by the Iraqi army, with many of the Shia led militias doing the same things. The actions of these Iraqi army units mirror those of ISIS. 

My Comment:

I'm not too surprised about these reports. I have known that the Shia militias have committed several war crimes in the past so it isn't too surprising that the Iraqi army is getting in on the action as well. In some ways this isn't unexpected. After all ISIS has committed so many atrocities that the desire for revenge must be incredibly high. In short, when an enemy offers you no quarter and executes your fellow fighters when they surrender, there is very little incentive to follow the rules of war. 

That is a reason not an excuse. Though I am not in any way sympathetic to ISIS, this is still wrong. Even if you were to argue that ISIS isn't entitled to the rules of war because they are a terrorist organization, this goes way beyond what is acceptable. You don't kill and torture captured enemies because it takes away the incentive to surrender. And it is always wrong to just out and out murder civilians. 

In addition, atrocities are usually counter productive, especially when you consider that many civilians are getting killed in these attacks as well. I've mentioned before that the Iraq War is largely a sectarian conflict. My guess is that these units are Shia and the victims are Sunni. When one of these groups starts targeting civilians all they are doing is reinforcing the idea that the whole war is just an effort to destroy Sunni Muslims. Even if the Sunni Muslims hate ISIS, they will support them if the only other option is to be killed by the Iraqi Army. It is free propaganda for ISIS and a great recruiting tool for them. 

And if this is how the Iraqi Army is acting, how do you think the Shia militias are going to act? There is even less restraint among the Shia groups then there is in the Army. The Iraq War is going to a very dark place and it would not surprise me if the whole thing ends with one group or another getting slaughtered. 

So what can the U.S. do? Other then cutting funding for some of these groups, not much. Iran is in control now, and they care little about atrocities. Indeed, they may be encouraging since they have a vested interest in creating divisions between Sunni and Shia Muslims. The U.S. doesn't have nearly as much leverage with the Iraqi government as Iran does because Iran actually has troops on the ground fighting ISIS. The U.S. only has trainers and air support, many of which are working with the Kurds instead of the Iraqi Army. The best the United States can do is make sure that the Kurds, who they have considerably more influence over, don't start doing the same thing.