Full circle

Iraqi news-site AlMelaf.com reports:

Our correspondent in Baghdad learned from an official in the Interior Ministry that that ministry has obtained information on the existence of an American plan to send recruits from Sunni tribes to certain Baghdad areas. Our correspondent said there are four brigades being trained and equipped in preparation for assignment to Baghdad. He added that these bridages will be under the direct supervision and leadership of the American army, and they will be participating in military operations together with the American forces. And there is information to the effect the initial assignments will be to [the district of] Palestine Street, Waziriya, and two other districts not yet known.

Iraqslogger correctly notes that this would represent an escalation in tensions between the Iraqi government and the Americans, on the question of who controls military/security operations.

The implicit point is that this would represent US alliance with Sunni forces in areas where the main issues tend to be Sunni versus Shiia (and not Sunni versus AlQaeda). And in that way the coming full circle of what Iraqi nationalists have always said is essence of the American strategy: First, alliance with Shiite militias to persecute Sunnis (and Baathists in particular) in the post 2003 period; and now switching to alliance with Sunni fighters to persecute Shiites (and Sadrists in particular) to finish the job of reducing Iraq to a collection of walled-off cantons.