The pullout of American forces from Iraq begins, bases are dismantled or handed over to the Iraqis, who spend days joyfully celebrating the news that the American occupation of their country will soon be history.
But this New York Times portrait of a fractured, tense Sunni/Shiite neighbourhood hints at what may follow the American pullout :
...the Shiite government believes many of the Sunni militias are little more than cover for insurgents.“I don’t want to assign any of them to be in my force,” said Capt. Ishan Falah Hassan of the National Police. “In my opinion, and this is not the government opinion, many of them should be arrested.”
He said the American strategy of paying (the Sunnis) for doing little more than stopping their attacks on them was clever, but it was time for the whole system to end.
Still, he worries there are networks of extremists waiting to attack.
“The terrorism cells were sleeping and they are ready to attack...”
