Maliki Balking at Hiring Sons of Iraq

Leila Fadel reports in McClatchy that the Shiite Maliki government is dragging its feet on its promise to incorporate the Sunni Sons of Iraq either into the Iraqi security force or other government jobs. Maliki is also threatening to disarm or detain members of the Sunni militia. All of this could lead to a fracture in Iraq's fragile reduction in violence.

American military officials here have always said that the creation of the Sunni militias was at least as important to the precipitous drop in violence as the presence of 30,000 more U.S. troops, and that incorporating them into the security forces would go a long way toward bringing about the sort of reconciliation needed for long-term stability.

After initially embracing the idea of bringing the militia members into the security forces, however, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki hasn't followed through. A committee that Maliki formed to organize the militias' transition to full-fledged government security troops fell apart and was reconstituted only recently. U.S. officials acknowledge that the hiring of the Sunnis has slowed to a crawl.

It is unclear what this will mean for the reported draft agreement of the Status of Forces Agreement between the US and Iraq that apparently calls for withdrawal of US troops from Iraq beginning next summer.

--Ballard Burgher