Sunday, September 16, 2007

Anbar South?

Seems that some of your Shiite sheiks south of Baghdad want to get the Americans to give them some weapons and training so they can do something about the folks giving them a hard time. Down that way that would be the Mahdi Army and the Badr Brigades and various as yet unnamed criminal groups.
Army Capt. Majid al-Imara, who said he has been charged with establishing the new force, said each battalion will be made up of 350 men chosen by tribal leaders, and they will be armed and equipped by the Iraqi government and paid $300 monthly, he said.

Col. Peter Baker, the commander of the 214th Fires Brigade that took over Forward Operating Base Delta near Kut in June, also said the idea was for the tribal volunteers to act as an “auxiliary police force” that could provide security in an organized fashion but let the sheiks maintain control of tribal members.

One of the obstacles is the lack of a single enemy, such as al-Qaida in Iraq, which alienated Sunni tribal leaders and even other insurgents by killing sheiks and trying to impose a strict interpretation of Islam.

Shiites are getting increasingly fed up, however, with the fighting among rival militia groups, as well as the criminal nature of gangs engaging in extortion and setting up illegal checkpoints.

Weems acknowledged fears that the tribal leaders could abuse their authority and said he expected the movement to start with small groups that would receive mandatory training in when and how to use force, with careful monitoring.
And so we set up another organized armed group. To do what the Iraqi Army or the police is supposed to do. In an area where they probably don't like us any more than they do in Anbar. Sounds like a good idea to me.

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