RECONCILIATION?....NOT SO MUCH, REALLY

I noted below that the Shiites aren't too interested in bringing the Sunnis inside the tent and there was a report a few days ago of a "rogue" operation and it may not have really been "rogue":

Iraqi Government Raid Threatens to Inflame Province’s Tensions

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON and RIYADH MOHAMMED
Published: August 19, 2008
NY Times

In the raid, Iraqi security forces burst into the Diyala provincial headquarters to arrest a Sunni member of the provincial council but ended up firing at a federal lawmaker and later engaging in a 30-minute gun battle with the local police on the streets of Baquba. The secretary of the provincial governor was killed at the headquarters.

Some witnesses, both Sunni and Shiite Muslim, said that some of the troops told witnesses during the operation that they were “the dirty division” and were acting on behalf of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who leads a Shiite-dominated government. Several security officials identified them as a special antiterrorism force.

We have been paying former Sunni insurgents to stop attacking coalition and Iraqi forces and help us defeat Al Qaeda. The ruling Shiites really don't give a damn about that and are on the verge of re-starting the civil war.

Iraq Takes Aim at U.S.-Tied Sunni Groups’ Leaders
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
Published: August 21, 2008
NY Times

BAGHDAD — The Shiite-dominated government in Iraq is driving out many leaders of Sunni citizen patrols, the groups of former insurgents who joined the American payroll and have been a major pillar in the decline in violence around the nation.

In restive Diyala Province, United States and Iraqi military officials say there were orders to arrest hundreds of members of what is known as the Awakening movement as part of large security operations by the Iraqi military. At least five senior members have been arrested there in recent weeks, leaders of the groups say.

“Some people from the government encouraged us to fight against Al Qaeda, but it seems that now that Al Qaeda is finished they don’t want us anymore,” said Abu Marouf, who, according to American officials, was a powerful guerrilla leader in the 1920s Revolutionary Brigade west of Baghdad. “So how can you say I am not betrayed?”