Militiamen

At least certain factions of the Pro-Invasion right are consistent about something: Militias. Those gun-nut rightists starting their own private armies to patrol the border and keep Michael Moore out of Rural North Dakota and Montana, as well as making sure he sure's hell doesn't try to swim cross the Ree-oh Grand-ay should be proud of their Militia forming Iraqi brethren:

Shiite and Kurdish militias, often operating as part of Iraqi government security forces, have carried out a wave of abductions, assassinations and other acts of intimidation, consolidating their control over territory across northern and southern Iraq and deepening the country's divide along ethnic and sectarian lines, according to political leaders, families of the victims, human rights activists and Iraqi officials.

While Iraqi representatives wrangle over the drafting of a constitution in Baghdad, the militias, and the Shiite and Kurdish parties that control them, are creating their own institutions of authority, unaccountable to elected governments, the activists and officials said. In Basra in the south, dominated by the Shiites, and Mosul in the north, ruled by the Kurds, as well as cities and villages around them, many residents have said they are powerless before the growing sway of the militias, which instill a climate of fear that many see as redolent of the era of former president Saddam Hussein.

The parties and their armed wings sometimes operate independently, and other times as part of Iraqi army and police units trained and equipped by the United States and Britain and controlled by the central government. Their growing authority has enabled them to control territory, confront their perceived enemies and provide patronage to their followers. Their ascendance has come about because of a power vacuum in Baghdad and their own success in the January parliamentary elections.

Even in America: tribalist/ideological militias running the country would result in one thing and one thing only: Civil War.

But hey, like any good father, they must be proud.

Check out some good discussion on this at Obsidian Wings.