Monday, February 25, 2008

Make them work together

Nir Rosen gives a bleak outlook on Iraq in his new article, published in Rolling Stone, a very cool magazine. Way to go Nir! I feel sorry for Arkan, the Iraqi National Police officer who wants to do the right thing, but might be killed for it. If there is any good in the Iraqi police today, it is Iraqi officers like Arkan.

Perhaps this is an example of why US troops should stay in Iraq for a while: Osama himself makes no secret of his hatred for the Shiite government and its security forces. As we walk by a checkpoint manned by the Iraqi National Police, which is comprised almost entirely of Shiites, Osama looks at the uniformed officers in disgust. "I want to kill them," he tells me, "but the Americans make us work together."

Well there you have it, folks. As long as US troops are in Iraq, they should try to make the Iraqis work together, and they should continue to encourage the Iraqi government to hire more Sunni Arabs into the National Police.

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