Iraqi government reassures the Awakening, but fighters are wary

[DogPoundPup]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government will not turn its back on the men who paid in blood for the country's fragile peace, said the officials on stage in the ballroom at Baghdad's al-Rasheed Hotel, referring to U.S.-paid Sunni militias. But the Awakening leaders listened warily. "I don't trust a word they said," said one, afterward.

The Shiite-led Iraqi government is due to take control of the 99,000-strong militias Oct. 1, absorbing 20,000 into the police and army and providing jobs, schooling or vocational training for the rest.

For almost two years the Pentagon paid men in the mainly Sunni group at least $300 a month each to fight al Qaida and other Sunni extremist groups. They were key in breaking the terrorist group's stranglehold in parts of Anbar and Diyala provinces and still face kidnappings, executions and suicide bombings there.

But the recent alliance was not entirely comfortable at all times for any of the parties involved. Many of the rank and file from the U.S. military and Iraqi security forces were at first reluctant to fight alongside men who, before they were put on payroll, sometimes tried to kill them. Last month, U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus said the Iraqi government had been deliberately slow bringing them into the security forces here.

On the other side, Awakening fighters fear prosecution for past crimes, and question whether the government will make good on its promises.

There have been many promises, and on Thursday the officials reiterated them.

"The government has ordered that monthly salaries be paid until we can put (Awakening members) into security forces or the ministries," said Gen. Abud Ganbar, the Baghdad operations commander. "Payments will continue until they find jobs."

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/52317.html

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The SURGE is 'promised' to work?

Please, please, PLEASE read... A Social History of the Surge
http://www.juancole.com/2008/07/social-history-of-surge.html