August 26th, 2008 by Adam

In the Los Angeles Times, Shawn Brimley and Colin Kahl warn that the recent crackdown on the Sons of Iraq by Prime Minister Maliki threatens to reverse recent security gains and inflame sectarian tensions. They say that plans to integrate them into the Iraqi security forces have been delibarately slowed and the Iraqi army has arrested or harassed members of the Sons of Iraq. The U.S. can pressure Maliki to reconcile by using its remaining leverage to, “…make continued security assistance conditional on Maliki carrying through on his commitments to integrate and gainfully employ the Sons of Iraq.”

Similarly, Marc Lynch at Abu Aardvark provides a run-down of recent analysis on the subject and provides some interesting commentary of his own.

Posted in Iraq, Sectarianism |