Hundreds Of Sunnis In Iraq Stripped of Police Rank In Anbar

This is a fairly ominous development.

One of the keys to defeating al-Qaeda and the insurgency in Iraq involved the US cultivating the Sunni Awakening movement in places like Anbar province, giving them arms and money and convincing Sunnis that they would have a place at the table in Iraq's new federation government.

Now that the US is on the way out, Iraq's caretaker Shi'ite government led by President Maliki has stripped 410 Sunni policemen associated with the Awakening movement of their police rank in Anbar province.Most of them are convinced that the move is a political ploy to marginalize the Sunnis in Iraq, which it almost definitely is.

Iraq, you'll remember, still doesn't have a government after the disputed election. Former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's bloc won with a razor-thin lead, but the Shi'ite power structure led by Maliki managed to disqualify several winning parliamentary candidates on dubious grounds. Allawi,whose constituency largely consisted of Sunni and secular Shi'ite voters has essentially been marginalized, and a Shi'ite caretaker government led by Maliki continues to rule the country as many Sunnis accuse Shiite leaders of trying to steal the March 7 election and rule the country along tribal lines.

Mohammed Rashid, an assistant to Anbar's police chief, said, "If they insist to remove all these officers, we will suffer from a big shortage," he said. "We'll have to reduce our police stations, or the Ministry of Interior will need to replace them."

"They are the sons of the tribes, and they fought al-Qaeda in Iraq," Rashid said. "They're heroes."

My guess is that they'll be replaced by Shi'ites loyal to the Maliki government. The way the politics stack up, Iranian backed Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc has the decisive voice, and I wouldn't be surprised to see these police positions go to deserving members of Sadr's Mahdi Army.

(via via memeorandum)

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