Iraq's Sunii And Shiite Militias Going Down Different Directions

Sheik Aiffan Saadoun al-Aiffan, a leader of the Sunni Awakening, and his son hunting pigeons in Falluja last month. Joao Silva for The New York Times

Iraqi Sunnis Frustrated as Awakening Loses Clout -- Washington Post

FALLUJA, Iraq — Sheik Aiffan Saadoun al-Aiffan stepped across a scorched patch of farmland, raised his shotgun and fired once. A bird fell to the ground.

“Shooting Qaeda,” he said, explaining how he had honed his accuracy, fighting alongside American forces. But those times of counterinsurgency, when tribal leaders like him switched sides in what became known as the Sunni Awakening, are giving way to the rise of a new political order in Iraq.

Read more ....

Shiite Militia Reviving In Post-Election Iraq -- Washington Post/AP

BAGHDAD -- A once-feared Shiite militia that was crippled two years ago by defections and a U.S.-Iraqi crackdown has quietly started to regroup, adding street muscle to the Shiite party that emerged strongest from Iraq's parliamentary elections.

The revival of the Mahdi Army, loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, could be an ominous sign. An al-Sadr spokesman says the force is gearing up to ensure U.S. forces stick to a Dec. 31, 2011 deadline to withdraw from the country - threatening attacks on American troops if they stay past the date.

Read more ....

My Comment: Bottom line .... Iraq's old sectarian differences are always below the horizon .... it will not take much for it to become something else. For the moment .... no one knows for sure what will be that eventual outcome.