The Trump Effigy and the Iranian Empire

A cardboard Trump dangling in Baghdad tells the story of a nation ruled by foreign proxies

Just days ago, a life-sized cardboard effigy of U.S. President Donald Trump was hanged outside the American embassy in Baghdad. Carried out by pro-Iranian militia supporters, the stunt was ostensibly a protest against Israel’s recent strike inside Iranian territory. But this spectacle revealed a far grimmer truth: Iraq is no longer a sovereign nation. It is a battleground for foreign proxies that have hijacked its state, its institutions, and its future.

These militias aren’t just rogue armed groups. They are deeply embedded extensions of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Operating with impunity, they dominate Iraq’s security apparatus and rely on violence, intimidation, and corruption to cement Tehran’s grip over the country. Their existence is a direct assault on Iraqi sovereignty—and a constant threat to regional peace.

Iran’s entrenchment in Iraq began decades ago. During the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s, the IRGC helped form the Badr Organization—then the armed wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Composed of Iraqi exiles loyal to Ayatollah Khomeini, the Badr Brigade was based in Iran and prepared for a post-Saddam Iraq.

That day came in 2003. With the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime, a power vacuum opened, and Iran-backed militias flooded in. Groups like Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, Kata’ib Hizbollah, and Harakat al-Nujaba framed themselves as resistance fighters against foreign occupation. But in truth, they became sectarian death squads.

From 2005 to 2008, these militias carried out brutal campaigns of ethnic cleansing, especially in Baghdad and Diyala. Mixed neighborhoods turned into sectarian frontlines. Sunni families were slaughtered, and minorities—Christians, Yazidis, and others—fled in waves. The dream of a pluralistic Iraq quietly died behind sectarian checkpoints.

The rise of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and later ISIS, gave these militias their justification. Sunni jihadists bombed Shia neighborhoods, assassinated community leaders, and sowed terror. The militias responded with vengeance, using the chaos to frame their own atrocities as self-defense. But they weren’t defenders of the nation—they were consolidating a sectarian state-within-a-state.

As they expanded, they enriched themselves. Oil smuggling, extortion, and political graft transformed these militias into mafia-like syndicates. They infiltrated the government, security forces, and courts. Journalists were silenced, activists assassinated, civil society terrorized. Their leaders now wear suits by day and command death squads by night.

Much of this disaster could have been avoided.

In 2010, Ayad Allawi’s secular coalition won the most seats in Iraq’s parliamentary elections. But under pressure from Iran—and with tacit U.S. approval—Nouri al-Maliki remained in power. That decision sealed Iraq’s fate. Maliki empowered the militias, marginalized Sunnis, and dismantled any chance of building a non-sectarian national identity.

When ISIS overran Mosul in 2014, panic spread across Shia communities. The militias, with Iranian support, seized the opportunity to rebrand themselves as defenders of the nation. Iran coordinated, trained, and armed them under the umbrella of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), or al-Hashd al-Shaabi. The religious decree issued by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani gave them a veneer of legitimacy.

But the reality remained unchanged. Though nominally under the control of the Iraqi prime minister’s office, these groups follow their own leaders and ultimately take orders from Tehran. The Iraqi government now funds militias that answer to a foreign regime.

Today, they don’t just operate within Iraq. They threaten U.S. forces, launch rockets at embassies, and send drones into neighboring countries. Akram al-Ka’abi, leader of Harakat al-Nujaba, has publicly vowed to retaliate against all American forces and citizens in the region if Iran’s Supreme Leader is harmed.

These militias are the biggest obstacle to Iraq’s reform and sovereignty. To many Iraqis, they are feared as much as ISIS.

These militias have crossed every institutional threshold:

• Government: PMF members hold key positions across Iraq’s cabinet, security forces, and judiciary.

• Violence and Intimidation: Journalists, protesters, and activists face kidnappings, torture, and assassination. The October 2019 mass protests were brutally suppressed.

• Corruption: Smuggling networks siphon billions in oil revenue.

• Regional Threats: Militias have repeatedly launched rocket and drone attacks against U.S. bases and threaten neighboring states.

• Sectarian Cleansing: They target Sunnis, Kurds, Christians, and Yazidis to entrench demographic control.

Despite their reach, these militias are not invincible. They lack deep ideological roots or broad popular support. Most Iraqis—whether Shia, Sunni, or Kurd—view them not as patriots, but as foreign tools and local tyrants. Their survival depends entirely on the strength of the Iranian regime.

If Iran’s regime collapses, these militias will collapse with it. Their funding, coordination, and ideological backbone come entirely from the IRGC. Without it, they will fragment, flee, or simply vanish—provided there is a strong Iraqi government, backed by the U.S. and international allies, ready to reclaim the vacuum they leave behind.

Iraqis already envision that future. Polls and street sentiment suggest that 75–80% of the population want these militias disbanded and the political system reformed.

The Trump effigy hanging in Baghdad wasn’t a show of strength. It was a desperate cry from a movement in decline—a last gasp from men whose grip on power depends on fear, foreign support, and fading legitimacy.

Iraq wants out of the shadow of the Islamic Republic. It wants a normal country—one not governed by the chants of “Death to America,” nor the thuggery of Tehran’s enforcers. The road to that future will be hard. But the first step is clear: these militias must go.

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