IRAQ: Backpage Story

BAGHDAD — Sunni militants staged a violent uprising in central Baghdad Saturday after Iraqi forces detained a leader of the Sons of Iraq, a mostly Sunni paramilitary force that until recently had received salaries from the United States and is now on the Iraqi government payroll.

Sixteen people were injured in the battle in the once volatile Fadhl neighborhood, and five Iraqi soldiers were missing – snatched Saturday night by members of the Sons of Iraq, a security official said.

The arrest of Adel Mashhadani, who leads the force in Fadhl, and his assistant, heightened fears among Sunnis that the Iraqi government plans to divide and disband the movements now that its taken control of all but a few thousand of the 94,000 members across the country…

The Sons of Iraq in Baghdad were on the U.S. military payroll until late last year, tasked to secure their neighborhoods from insurgents fighting for Al Qaida in Iraq.Iraq. Now they are under Iraqi control in the capital and most of

But Saturday, members of the paramilitary turned their fury on the Americans as well as the Shiite-led government. U.S. military advisors accompanied the Iraqi forces when they picked up Mashhadani along with Salman Qaddouri, a deputy.

“They sold him,” said Khaled Jamal Qaisi, Mashhadani’s deputy, referring to the U.S. military.

“The Americans are vile people and they betrayed our trust,” Qaisi said. “We are the ones who fought al Qaida. They want things to return as they used to be? If they don’t release Adel al Mashhadani today, you will all be prisoners in your homes.”

We’d best watch out or we’ll end up losing those we ‘paid’ to do our work for us.  I warned back in 2007 when I first heard about this ‘buying off the enemy’ that it wouldn’t work, now I’m afraid I just might have been right.

Sort of reminds me of the stories about the mob in Chicago.  The bartender (U.S. in this case – no harm intended) offers to pay the Mob for security.  If the bartender quits paying, he gets killed or his place gets trashed by members of the Mob.