Fumbling the Hand-Off

Yaaaaay! We handed over the Anbar province!!!! According to the right-wing the war is almost over!

Right? Right?

Sort of.

Not really.

No.

From the Washington Post...

"...as Iraqis celebrated the milestone, uncertainty lingered about the future of a linchpin in the effort to secure Anbar and the rest of Iraq: the Awakening movement, a 100,000-person group of former Sunni insurgents who now cooperate with U.S. troops.

The Shiite-led government has recently stepped up a campaign to arrest leaders of the Awakening and dismantle parts of the program, whose members receive $300 a month from the U.S. military. Many fighters have abandoned their posts and fled their homes to avoid detention, stoking fears that some will rejoin the insurgency."

So we leave and the Shiite government starts arresting the people who fought al-Qaeda in Iraq for us.

Sounds like stable democracy to me!

From USA Today...

"...approximately 25,000 U.S. Marines stationed in Anbar will remain for now, but they will run fewer patrols and function largely in a supporting role for Iraqi security forces."

So we're handing it over. But we're still running patrols and keeping 25,000 troops there.

Is that really "handing it over"? 25,000 US troops is a lotta guns, bullets and boots in the area.

Doesn't sound like a hand-over in any sense of the word except symbolically saying, "Here ya go. Arrest our former allies without cause and we won't stop you. Do what you want! However if things get out of hand we have 25,000 fucking death-bringers ready to go at a moment's notice. So enjoy your sovereignty! For now!"