Building a Sunni militia
The WaPo has a GREAT article outlining the fighting in Amiriyah between the Sunni nationalists and Al Qaeda. It's free of the cheerleading and overblown optimism in alot of the coverage, and in the second page gives a really good look at how the US is acting to back what is essentially a Sunni militia force.
It's a good thing that these groups are fighting Al Qaeda across Iraq, but once they've been armed, trained, and worked with US units and tactics, it's likely they're going to turn those weapons on the Shia government or the US. The Maliki government cannot be happy about the US taking this course.
This is such a shift from the previous in theater personnel trying to bring the Sunnis into the political process first. Ryan Crocker and Gen. Petraeus are way out on a counterinsurgency limb here.
It's a good thing that these groups are fighting Al Qaeda across Iraq, but once they've been armed, trained, and worked with US units and tactics, it's likely they're going to turn those weapons on the Shia government or the US. The Maliki government cannot be happy about the US taking this course.
This is such a shift from the previous in theater personnel trying to bring the Sunnis into the political process first. Ryan Crocker and Gen. Petraeus are way out on a counterinsurgency limb here.
posted by mikevotes at
2:15 PM
2 Comments:
"Because we've got a lot of armed guys running all over the place, and it's making it very hard for us to identify which side is which."
Says it all really.
By
Anonymous, at 3:42 PM
Yeah. I thought this article did a good job describing both the chaos and the potential for blowback.
Even dislodging Al Qaeda for a little while would be a good thing, but the backside on this is ugly.
By
mikevotes, at 3:57 PM
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