The Iraqi government is set to put former rebels in Baghdad on its payroll, partially integrating what is arguably the country's largest militia into the armed forces, a senior official said Sunday. The transfer of responsibility for paying the so-called Sons of Iraq from the US military to the government begins with 54,000 men in the province of Baghdad on Monday.
Sounds pretty fair, since the Sons of Iraq played a major role in beating up AQI an chasing them out of town, at least most towns. It'll probably be a tricky and intricate operation to actually integrate them into the official government forces, but it needs done, if only as an insurance policy. With its religious and ethnic divisions Iraq's future lies in a secular state. At some point in the future the only people who won't be able to see that will be sundry holy men -- or Iraq will be back where it was prior to Petraeus. |