Ilan Goldenberg tells us that the "Anbar Awakening" forces, essentially the Sunni groups we gave money and weapons to so they'd drive out the minor (if oft-cited) al Qaeda elements in Anbar, are close to open conflict with the major elected Sunni parties. I know, it's hard to believe that giving a large group of people a bunch of money and weapons might make them think about using it to gain political power (and not just do whatever we tell them), but it's true:
It looks like tensions have reached a new level between the Sunni Green Zone politicians and the "Awakening" movement. What's scary here is that the level of distrust and hatred in intra-Sunni politics probably doesn't even come close to what you have to deal with in terms of getting the Awakening Groups and Concerned Local Citizens integrated into national Shi'a dominated institutions. And trying to change the leadership by holding elections may only make the situation worse. On top of that, if violence between the Green Zone politicians and the Awakening Councils breaks out in Anbar we're in for a whole new set of problems and "bottom up reconciliation" could very well go up in smoke.The Bush administration strategy in Iraq continues to make things worse, not better. Day by day, worse and worse.
I was going to close this post by linking to a report of the latest US deaths in Iraq, but CNN doesn't have that information on its front page . . . or it's "World" page . . . or the front page of its "Middle East" section. Fitting, I guess.
Main & gay blog