I want to start by saying that the Hashd played a critical role in saving Iraq from the threat of Daesh in 2014 and in liberating the country from Daesh in 2015-2017. Their contribution needs to be remembered and rewarded. Collectively, all of Iraq owes them a great debt of gratitude, and individually they deserve to be compensated for the service they performed for their country. I mean every word of that and I think it is crucial for Iraq to honor the contributions of the Hashd.

However, it is equally true that the Hashd, in its current form, has gone from being the savior of Iraq to becoming its potential downfall. What is vital and necessary in wartime is often ruinous in peacetime. History has repeatedly demonstrated that a parallel military, one which controls its own resources, recruitment, and leadership selection, inevitably undermines peace and prosperity. Whether it is the Roman legions, the Japanese armed forces pre-1945, the Egyptian army, Lebanese Hizballah, or Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, the historical pattern is unavoidable and unanimously disastrous. Parallel militaries in which the state does not choose (and cannot dismiss) the leadership, in which the state cannot control the distribution of resources within the organization, and cannot determine recruitment and assignment of personnel always produces catastrophes of one kind or another and never lead to happy outcomes. Look at the mess Egypt is in today. Look at how weak Lebanon is. Think of how Japan’s military leaders got it into a war that absolutely destroyed their country.

If the Hashd al-Sha’abi is going to continue to exist in the future, but do so in a way that does not ruin Iraq economically, politically, and/or militarily, it needs to be radically restructured. It would need to be turned into a reserve paramilitary organization more like the American National Guard or perhaps the earlier incarnation of the Iranian Basij. The existing Iraqi chain of command needs to have complete control over who is in charge of which formations, how resources are allocated throughout the Hashd chain of command, and how personnel are recruited and assigned to formations of the Hashd. The system that has existed so far, of individual leaders recruiting, promoting, and demoting their own fighters and officers; determining the allocation of weapons, supplies, and money, to those personnel; and having no accountability to the leadership for failing to execute orders or for the disposition of those resources, absolutely has to end. If it doesn’t, Iraq will never be the strong, prosperous, peaceful, and independent state that every Iraqi wants it to be.