MEANWHILE, BACK IN IRAQ

Last summer, NPR reported that our new buddies, the Anbar Awakening Sunnis, still don't like the central government and probably won't ever come around to accepting it. Looks like nothing has changed 9 months later.

from the April 10, 2008 edition -
In Iraq, Sunni insurgents still aim to oust U.S., Shiites
In an interview, a member of the Islamic Army of Iraq speaks of his group's long-term goals.
By Sam Dagher
Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

Baghdad

...homegrown Sunni insurgent groups not directly tied to AQI remain committed to fighting US forces and driving Iraq's Shiite led-government from power. While they have assumed a lower profile, they benefit from the support of former regime figures and militant Sunnis abroad as well as the proliferation of weapons and ammunition flowing from Iran and Syria.

They have also made significant inroads into the Sunni militias, dubbed "Sons of Iraq," created by the US military to fight AQI. While Petraeus said again Wednesday that these US-backed militias had "some former insurgents," the IAI's Abu Abdullah, who goes by a nickname, says he would not dream of moving around if it were not for help from these militias and Sunni elements inside government security forces.