Word: iraqi
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...indeed, the sheiks are preparing for hostilities - of the democratic kind. With Iraq-wide provincial elections two months away, these Anbari chieftains have banded together under the banner of the Iraqi Tribal Front, and will field candidates in several provinces. So after the compound has filled up, the chanting turns distinctly political. "We are with Nouri al-Maliki on SOFA," they shout, referring to the status of forces agreement that the Iraqi Prime Minister has signed, amid considerable domestic opposition, with...
There's another political motivation behind their support of al-Maliki and the SOFA. The agreement is opposed by the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), the Sunni party loathed by the sheiks. The IIP won control of the Anbar provincial government in the last election, when most of the sheiks boycotted the vote. Now the chieftains want to supplant the IIP as the main voice of Iraq's Sunnis. Backing the SOFA and al-Maliki allows them to distinguish themselves from the IIP. The sheiks, in short, are playing democratic politics...
...sheiks of Anbar have issued a challenge of their own. Iraqi politics will never be the same...
...After a great deal of pressure from the U.S. military, the Iraqi government this month finally took charge of paying the salaries for the 54,000 SOI in the Baghdad area. (Abdallah's group remains on the U.S. payroll.) In early November, 3,000 SOI were inducted into the police training academy. Al-Ameri says 15,000 to 20,000 SOI will be inducted into Iraqi security forces, but only after further verification. The rest will have to give up their arms and take up other jobs - as carpenters, plumbers, electricians and so on. "We'll give them training...
...unlikely that men like Abdallah will simply lay down their weapons and be satisfied with a menial job. Many SOI see themselves as the true protectors of their towns and provinces and have nothing but scorn for the Iraqi government, police and army. "If they don't make me at least a captain or a major in the army, I don't want any other job from them," Abdallah says. And what would he do then? "I don't know," he says. "Maybe I'll go back to what I did before." He smiles and makes the universal gesture...