Iraqi Soldier kills 2 US troops on joint patrol
An Iraqi soldier allegedly shot dead two American troops while they were patrolling together north of the capital, the U.S. military and an Iraqi official said Saturday. The Iraqi official said the suspect has links to militant groups.
Wow! How could such a thing happen?
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, meanwhile, offered his strongest public support to date for U.S.-backed Sunni Arab groups that have joined the fight against al-Qaida, promising to integrate a ''large number'' of them in the security forces.
Oh right. Ever since the "surge" morphed into the "Awakening", the US has been pushing the integration of former, (and, as the above example indicates, often still current), insurgents into the Iraqi security forces. In fact, this has been the pattern for nearly the entire occupation, where the US started by putting together Iraqi units by throwing uniforms on Kurdish pesh merga and Shiite squads like the Iranian-trained Badr Brigades in an attempt to boost numbers on the cheap.
The loyalty of these units, of course, remains to the groups they were drawn from, and while they may be willing to use US weapons and money for their own purposes, they still view the Americans as occupiers to be defeated.
They have time on their side, and can afford to be patient. When the US starts drawing down troops again, as they must, we'll see just how loyal the rest of those forces really are.
