America's "Sons of Iraq" Returning to the Insurgency? (Williams/Adnan)

One of the heralded features of the US "surge" in Iraq in 2007-8, which purported brought stability and checked violence in the country, was the creation of Sunni militias, known as the "Sons of Iraq" or Awakening Councils. The units were to rally the population against the threat of "foreign" insurgencies such as Al Qa'eda in Iraq.

With the official pull-back of the US military under the December 2008 Status of Forces Agreement, the theory was that the Iraqi Government --- even if it was predominantly Shi'a --- would integrate the Awakening Councils into the national military and security services. In practice, however, that has proved problematic.

Timothy Williams and Duraid Adnan of The New York Times pick up the story:

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