New Iraqi Army

You may have heard that the troop strength of the Iraqi national security force is growing. That is somewhat true. The particular part that you don't hear is that nearly all the battalions and regiments are made up of nearly exclusively one group (Shiite or Sunni), but not both.

The minor problem here is that you don't have an integrated government, which is the goal. This leads to the worse problem of potential strife with one religious/ethnic group controlling the the security of another...or more to the point, NOT providing security (on purpose). To make matters worse still, we may be creating specially trained soldiers that are PRE GROUPED together for easy organization in the event of a full fledged civil war between the Sunni's and the Shia.

Driving this point home was a clip i saw last night on the daily show. It was a comencement ceremony for new Sunni recruits trained to handle Iraqi security. all was nice as they marched in step around the parade grounds. That is, until they were told they were told they'd be working in a Shia section of Iraq. Then they all promptly began to scream at the announcement, rip their uniforms off, toss them in the dirt, stomp on them, and quit.

I don't know what's worse. the fact that its happening, or the fact that The Daily Show was the only 'news' outlet that even COVERED it!