SELECT * FROM policies WHERE irishash="0xSTUPID";

Late to the party, I know. But is this the worst example of biometrics as a religion yet? So the Shia-led, pro-Iranian government of Iraq we're desperately propping up doesn't like the Sunni, Iraqi chauvinist countergangs we organised to prop them up much. So the plan to reintegrate them, as they say, into society as law-abiding citizens ain't going so well. (Ah, Sergeant Hussein? You know how we invaded your country, overthrew the dictator, then dissolved the army you spent the last 15 years in and left you to rot on the dole while we conspired with your despised religious and class enemies? And we finally agreed to enrol you and your old mates as an auxiliary police force because we couldn't catch you? Well, thanks, we're doing it again. Yes, the first bit. Have you considered becoming a plumber? Please don't use any metalworking skills you may acquire to make EFPs, that's all we ask.)

Worse, yer man is now trying to pick a fight with the Kurds, in which case they will no doubt retaliate by grabbing Sgt Hussein's home town and telling the government in Baghdad it can't have any more oil. As a lot of the army Maliki counts on for this is actually the Kurdish army, there's a lot more that can go wrong here. So what's the plan B?

Apparently it's biometrics. All those ex-insurgents from the NOIA who signed up on our side were iris-scanned, and the information something or other with Saddam's old secret police files. Hey, I remember that the secret police files got torched. Except for the bits involving George Galloway and various other people who all by coincidence opposed the war. And the ones the Chalabi Boys nicked and the US Army had to nick back; there's a lot of different data sets wandering about, no? Of course, there's absolutely no point in looking for Sunni Arab nationalist ex-army insurgents in Saddam's old files; it was Sunni Arab nationalist army officers who compiled Saddam's old files in the first place. Perhaps they mean the Republican Guard payroll, but who knows, eh.

Anyway, the biometrics. How is this meant to help? Specifically, the iris scans. Now, if you make a bomb, your irises don't leave any traces on it. Iris-scanning implies you've caught the guy already and you want to check if he's on the list. And the point of guerrilla warfare is that the enemy doesn't know who to lock up, or else they can't catch up with them, or the people they are after hide out somewhere they'll need to stage a huge multidivisional onslaught and probably build a railway to get into. I mean, it's got to be better than having absolutely no information, but it's no solution, especially if the data is mashed up with the wrong kind of intelligence files. (Ah, Sergeant Al-Hakim. You must be proud of your years of heroic resistance to Baathist tyranny...)

It's as if they believe that having an MD5 hash of someone's iris means you can double-click on their photo and they're delivered to your desk like an Amazon.com package; or that the camera will take your soul. But then, every government thinks this, at least some of the time. Which reminds me:

The immigration minister, Liam Byrne, promised yesterday to start issuing ID cards to foreign nationals within 300 days - by November 2008. The first required to apply will be students and those married to British citizens or involved in civil partnerships or long-term relationships.

Seven weeks to go. No contracts. No requirements document. No specs. No code. Someone's in for an epic binge-coding session, aren't they? Or is "Teh Stupid! It's Byrne's!" hoping we've all forgotten? Maybe NO2ID should put in a bid itself...

Mutiny

Az-zaman, via Cole reports that the Iraqi government "honoured" SCIRI...sorry...ISIC militiamen for their role in the Basra fighting, and that some 10,000 of them were officially signed up to the Government's own forces (I thought they already were). The reason for this step is apparently that large numbers - thousands - of men in the Iraqi Army and other forces deserted rather than take part in the offensive. There is more here; supposedly two regiments did so in Baghdad, but I'd warn that what they call a regiment may just be an example of unit inflation.

Now, over at Kaboom! (officially the Colby Buzzell of 2008), here's some corroboration.

Day 2: I stand in the streets, looking at a building with a sloping roof and two cannonball-sized holes in the middle of it. We have spent many hours zigzagging through the various Shi’a neighborhood cores in Anu al-Verona, but it is only now, with the light of the morning, that the full scope of JAM’s resurgent spectacle is comprehended. The aforementioned holes are the gift of an Iraqi Army’s BMP (armored personnel carrier) main gun, and the aforementioned building is the local Sawha headquarters. The one Son of Iraq who bothered to show up for work today expresses his displeasure with the situation. I thank him for his devotion to duty and ask him where his coworkers are. He looks at me like I have a dick growing out of my forehead and says, “they are at home, of course. It is not safe here.” I ask him why he isn’t home then. “Because my father kicked me out and told me to go to work and I have nowhere else to go.”

My bold. OK, so not only did some members of the Iraqi Army go over to the other side, but these ones took their BMP with them - and immediately turned its guns on the ex-NOIA guys, with the result that they made themselves scarce (or possibly set off for the nearest concentration of Shia for some revenge). There have been reports scattered around of the Sadrists capturing armoured vehicles from the government, but most have referred to Humvees and such; this is the first heavy armour to be mentioned.

It can be pretty heavy, too; the BMP-3, despite ranking as an infantry fighting vehicle, carries a 100mm gun. I don't know which version we supplied to the Iraqi government (I think the armour came from Hungarian stocks). Meanwhile, Des Browne says:

At one point, he said, British tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and ground troops were deployed to help extract Iraqi government troops from a firefight with Shiite militiamen in the city.

Extract; as in "cover the retreat of", "aid in escape of", or just "save" them. It's Sadr's move, it always has been; as far as I can see, the only meaningful exit strategy has always been to recognise the people with actual mass support, so NOIA in the Sunni sector and Sadr in the Shia sector. Half of this has actually been done, although nobody wants to admit it; the problem is that their territories overlap. Lieutenant G's area of responsibility is exhibit A; he's far enough north to have 1920 Revolution Brigade NOIA on his side, but this doesn't mean he doesn't also have a major Sadrist presence.

Extra points: did anyone else spot Chalabi claiming credit for the ceasefire?

The Colonel of the 36th

You may recall that we've followed the career of the Iraqi Special Forces, née Ministry of the Interior Commandos, née 36th ICDC Battalion in some detail. This force is one of the few reasonably capable Iraqi units, made up of a mix of exiles and SCIRI Badr Corps men.

Kazimi has a mildly hagiographic post on its leader, Colonel Ya'arub al-Hashimi, who has been assassinated. Finishes with the line Some commentators on Iraq make a habit of deriding ‘the exiles.’ I would have liked to see them do that to Harbi’s face.

Indeed, because he would have had his boys drive a hammer drill through their balls.