diff --git a/lib/ansible/utils/splitter.py b/lib/ansible/module_utils/splitter.py
similarity index 100%
rename from lib/ansible/utils/splitter.py
rename to lib/ansible/module_utils/splitter.py
diff --git a/lib/ansible/playbook/play.py b/lib/ansible/playbook/play.py
index 8f8ed36a78c..2a1d570c7e7 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/playbook/play.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/playbook/play.py
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ from ansible.utils.template import template
 from ansible import utils
 from ansible import errors
 from ansible.playbook.task import Task
+from ansible.module_utils.splitter import split_args, unquote
 import ansible.constants as C
 import pipes
 import shlex
@@ -524,7 +525,7 @@ class Play(object):
                 task_vars['_original_file'] = original_file
 
             if 'include' in x:
-                tokens = utils.splitter.split_args(str(x['include']))
+                tokens = split_args(str(x['include']))
                 included_additional_conditions = list(additional_conditions)
                 include_vars = {}
                 for k in x:
@@ -573,7 +574,7 @@ class Play(object):
                 mv = task_vars.copy()
                 for t in tokens[1:]:
                     (k,v) = t.split("=", 1)
-                    v = utils.splitter.unquote(v)
+                    v = unquote(v)
                     mv[k] = template(self.basedir, v, mv)
                 dirname = self.basedir
                 if original_file:
diff --git a/lib/ansible/runner/__init__.py b/lib/ansible/runner/__init__.py
index 2a7e66966dc..980254f6445 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/runner/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/runner/__init__.py
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ import connection
 from return_data import ReturnData
 from ansible.callbacks import DefaultRunnerCallbacks, vv
 from ansible.module_common import ModuleReplacer
-from ansible.utils.splitter import split_args
+from ansible.module_utils.splitter import split_args
 
 module_replacer = ModuleReplacer(strip_comments=False)
 
diff --git a/lib/ansible/utils/__init__.py b/lib/ansible/utils/__init__.py
index b1e4051ec68..19f31140d7a 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/utils/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/utils/__init__.py
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ from ansible import __version__
 from ansible.utils.display_functions import *
 from ansible.utils.plugins import *
 from ansible.callbacks import display
-from ansible.utils.splitter import split_args, unquote
+from ansible.module_utils.splitter import split_args, unquote
 import ansible.constants as C
 import ast
 import time
diff --git a/library/commands/command b/library/commands/command
index 0577182e91c..ce54c83c387 100644
--- a/library/commands/command
+++ b/library/commands/command
@@ -186,6 +186,7 @@ def main():
 
 # import module snippets
 from ansible.module_utils.basic import *
+from ansible.module_utils.splitter import *
 
 # only the command module should ever need to do this
 # everything else should be simple key=value
@@ -211,18 +212,14 @@ class CommandModule(AnsibleModule):
             args = args.replace("#USE_SHELL", "")
             params['shell'] = True
 
-        # use shlex to split up the args, while being careful to preserve
-        # single quotes so they're not removed accidentally
-        lexer = shlex.shlex(args)
-        lexer.whitespace = '\t '
-        lexer.whitespace_split = True
-        items = list(lexer)
+        items = split_args(args)
 
         for x in items:
             quoted = x.startswith('"') and x.endswith('"') or x.startswith("'") and x.endswith("'")
             if '=' in x and not quoted:
                 # check to see if this is a special parameter for the command
                 k, v = x.split('=', 1)
+                v = unquote(v)
                 # because we're not breaking out quotes in the shlex split
                 # above, the value of the k=v pair may still be quoted. If
                 # so, remove them.
diff --git a/test/units/TestUtils.py b/test/units/TestUtils.py
index 8b22784a121..be992920510 100644
--- a/test/units/TestUtils.py
+++ b/test/units/TestUtils.py
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ import ansible.utils
 import ansible.errors
 import ansible.constants as C
 import ansible.utils.template as template2
-from ansible.utils.splitter import split_args
+from ansible.module_utils.splitter import split_args
 
 from ansible import __version__