Unintended Consequences?

The 2/16/5 Wall St. Journal contained an interesting front page article, "Bands of Brothers - New Factor in Iraq: Irregular Brigades Fill Security Void", that tells the story of the emergence of roughly 15,000 "irregular troops" in Iraq. These mini-armies are organized around tribal, religious, and charismatic leaders and engage in battles with the insurgents who have been carrying out all the terror attacks. These "pop ups" as they are called by the US military who stumble on to them at abandoned military and industrial sites, they "pop up" seemingly from nowhere, are a significant new military force compared to the 57,000 regular Iraqi army.

The question rising in the field is how to deal with these well-armed forces in the context of the ongoing efforts by the US and the interim Iraqi government to stabilize and control the country and to develop a government controlled security force. Is it good to have these "pop ups" battling with the insurgents? On the surface, the answer is yes. But, when you see the tribal and religious character of these "pop ups", questions of potential future religious/tribal based civil war seems not unreal.

US Lt. General Petraeus is quoted, "There is a tension between on the one hand encouraging and fostering initiative and on the other hand executing the plan for Iraqi Security Forces.... To be candid, I would err on the side of initiative. I want to get the hell out of here."

I wonder if the CIA had the same casual self-serving attitude toward the Afghan fighters they trained and funded to fight the Soviets during that long war in the 1980s? Many of these same fellows turned that training into Al Qaeda and the Taliban.