IMO, they are making more out of this limited success than there really is.


RAMADI, Iraq — The mood was celebratory. Dozens of tribal sheiks clad in traditional finery gathered for a feast after the central government promised $120 million to help Anbar province recover from years of fighting between U.S. forces and insurgents.

An Iraqi government official watching the scene last week marveled at how the Sunni Arab leaders who once backed insurgent groups had banded together to get their province to this point.

"The next big step is when the same kind of cooperation occurs between the Sunnis and the Shiites," he said wryly as cheeks were kissed and fingers were plunged into communal platters of rice and roasted meat. "That's a different story."
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LINK

It sounds like a bribe to me. I doubt much of the funds will actually help the area.

thinking.....thinking......it seems I have heard this plan in action before.......thinking......of yeah Afghanistan in the 1980's.....and how did that work out?

$120 million to help Anbar province recover from years of fighting between U.S. forces and insurgents.

That a drop in the bucket compared to what they need. This isn't enough funds to make much of an impact after the crooks get their cut.

As long as the members of the tribe are making their pay, it does not matter what the leadsers are doing.

A bit of an update on the Anbar situation.


IN his address to the nation on Thursday, President Bush singled out progress in Anbar Province as the model for United States success in Iraq. The president’s claims echoed those made earlier in the week by Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, in his Congressional testimony. And they raised a question worth examining: Do United States military alliances with Sunni tribal leaders truly reflect a turning of hearts and minds away from Anbar’s bitter anti-Americanism?

The data from our latest Iraq poll suggest not.

Al Qaeda, it should be said, is overwhelmingly — almost unanimously — unpopular in Anbar, as it is in the rest of Iraq. But our enemies’ enemies are not necessarily our friends. The United States, it turns out, is equally unpopular there.


LINK

President Bush singled out progress in Anbar Province as the model for United States success in Iraq.

If everything is as rosy as Bush says it is, bring the troops home.

Apparently, in his opinion Anbar is rosy, the rest of the country is just pinkish from the bllod stains.

Lokks like Maliki is not helping the situation in Anbar.


BAQOUBA, Iraq - A U.S. effort to recruit former Sunni insurgents north of Baghdad — considered crucial to expanding the fight against extremists — is in danger of collapse because the government has been unable or unwilling to accept the volunteers into Iraqi security forces.

The potential breakdown in Diyala — described by U.S. and Iraqi officials in interviews this week — underscores the challenges of copying the military-militia alliances that uprooted al-Qaida in Iraq and other factions from strongholds in Iraq's western desert.


LINK


Should make intersting reading to see how this will play out.

Well, this is no surprise as the current leaders in their government and ours are useless where solutions are concerned.

I think there is more to it than not letting them join the security services. I will be checking on this for comment.

God forbid the Sunnis militias are taking the job of the Shi'a militias.


The largest Shiite political coalition in Iraq demanded Tuesday that the U.S. military abandon its recruitment of Sunni tribesmen into the Iraqi police force, saying some are members of "armed terrorist groups" and are killing, kidnapping and extorting under the guise of fighting al Qaeda in Iraq.

The statement by the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite bloc of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, is the most direct rebuke to a policy that U.S. military officers hold up as one of their most important achievements over the past year.

American forces have given wide support to thousands of Sunni tribesmen across the country who have pledged to fight the insurgent group al Qaeda in Iraq. U.S. officials call the program grass-roots reconciliation that brings disenfranchised Sunnis into the government and provides protection for their neighborhoods.


LINK

The largest Shiite political coalition in Iraq demanded Tuesday that the U.S. military abandon its recruitment of Sunni tribesmen into the Iraqi police force, saying some are members of "armed terrorist groups" and are killing, kidnapping and extorting under the guise of fighting al Qaeda in Iraq.

Well, they should know. The Shiite have done the same thing.

I thought you might like that part, I found fascinating. these guys are getting dumber than a turnip.