Slideshow: The Baghdad Awakening
Only a few months ago, the Sunni neighborhood of Fadhil was virtually a no man’s land, shelled relentlessly by Shiite militias, its walls gouged with shrapnel. Now, members of the Fadhil Awakening Council patrol the neighborhood bringing about a newfound confidence.
At the heart of the American military’s counterinsurgency campaign — and a large part of its success — has been the expansion of the Awakening Councils, groups of Sunnis, some of them former militants themselves, who have bonded together to fight the most violent of the Sunni insurgents. These groups are known by many names including: Awakening Councils and Iraqi Sunni Volunteers; in Arabic they are known as Sahwas. In the Adhamiya neighborhood of Baghdad, a checkpoint was manned by members of a local Awakening group.
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Glad to see the NYT get something right.
December 23rd, 2007 at 7:43 pmThe long term project is getting local and CG functionaries with integrity, not constantly covertly trying to advance the dominance of one group over others. It’s a long term process, and can’t be left to chance or the magic wand of democracy.
The recent announcement that about a quarter of the CLCs would be put on goverment payroll is about right, I’d think.
The tone of the NYT article is, naturally, pretty pessimistic. But there’s a lot more flowing from the experience of security and freedom to act and work than meets the NYT’s eye.
December 23rd, 2007 at 11:39 pm