Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Regarding Iraq's New-Found Stability

It seems to be alarmingly fragile:
The Iraqi government is taking over responsibility for the local militias that helped break the back of the country's Sunni insurgency. But these fighters -- known as "Awakening Councils" and "Sons of Iraq" -- are largely hostile to the Shi'ite-dominated administration in Baghdad. So what happens next? No one is really quite sure.

Over the past eighteen months, U.S. forces in Iraq have put on the payroll more than 100,000 militiamen -- many of whom are former insurgents themselves. That's the main reason why American troops were able on Monday to hand off control of Anbar Province to the Iraqis.

1 comment:

Julia Riber Pitt said...

Very interesting. I take it these insurgents were the same people the troops were once fighting against? Anyhow, Iraq needs to be for Iraqis, not American interests.