iOS app Android app More  Ian Welsh  Ian Welsh  Posted: April 8,
2009 05:13 AM  The Iraq Awakening Showdown  What's Your
Reaction:  Looks like the Iraqi government is moving against the
Awakening Councils in Iraq. The councils, as you may recall,
were the Sunnis (many of them ex-insurgents) whom the Americans
paid and armed to fight al-Qa'eda in Iraq, and to impose some
sort of rough peace on their areas. They aren't really
controlled by the central government, and no central government
likes the idea of having independent military forces in its
territory, so they've been arresting leaders, which has led to
some pitched fighting.  From the point of view of the Iraqi
central government, they've got till the US leaves to get this
done with. As with when they went after al-Sadr is Basra and had
to be bailed out by American troops and Iranian diplomacy, it's
not clear that the Iraqi army is capable of independent
operations against highly motivated enemy forces. But as long as
the Americans are around, no one wan