Iraq Guns-For-Money Offer Gets No Takers

IRAQ: Guns for money
Los Angeles Times

March 28, 2008

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's hopes of forcing Shiite militiamen
to hand in their weapons has fallen flat, so he has extended a
disarmament deadline and sweetened the deal by offering money in
exchange for guns.

A spokesman for the government's Interior Ministry, Abdul Kareem
Khalaf, acknowledged today that not a single weapon had been turned in
since Maliki ordered the disarmament Wednesday and gave fighters a
three-day deadline. The call came as Shiite Muslim militias battled
Iraqi security forces in the aftermath of Maliki's crackdown on
militiamen. The offensive was launched Tuesday in the southern city of
Basra and has since spread to Shiite strongholds across Iraq.

Khalaf said Maliki had extended the deadline until April 8 and that a
"financial reward" awaits militiamen who comply. There's no word on
how much this reward could be. Maliki has said fighters who disarm
must also sign a pledge to refrain from future militia activities and
follow Iraqi law.

If it sounds familiar, that's because this is similar to the model in
use by U.S. forces as they work to keep former insurgents from
resuming anti-U.S. activities. That program, launched in late 2006,
has been aimed mainly at Sunni Muslims who once supported the
insurgency but who, for a variety of reasons, have opted out of the
fight.

Now, some 80,000 of them receive about $10 per day from the United
States military in exchange for manning checkpoints in their
neighborhoods and bolstering security. Before earning their positions
in the so-called Sons of Iraq program, they had to go through
background checks and sign pledges of loyalty to the Iraqi government.

That system has its own problems, as the Times reported in a recent
story that outlined the potential pitfalls of paying people not to
shoot you. But getting the Sunnis to agree to the deal was not as
difficult as it could be to get Shiites to accept a guns-for-money
plan. As analysts such as Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign
Relations has noted, the Sunnis are vastly outnumbered in Iraq. Unlike
the one-time Sunni fighters who switched loyalties, Shiite militiamen
have a far better chance of coming out on top in the power struggles
raging across Iraq.

"The real tough nuts are the Shiite militias," Biddle said in an
interview with the Times last year, as he discussed the chances of
success of President George W. Bush's plan of using additional
American troops to pacify Iraq. The Sunnis, he explained, saw
themselves as "potential losers" in any Iraqi conflict, so they had
plenty to gain by switching sides.

"The big hurdles to overcome are persuading the people who think
they're going to win a civil war to settle for less," he said.

That's the headache facing Maliki. Sadr militiamen and loyalists say
they have no intention of stopping their resistance to the current
offensive. Some warn it will make them more determined to fight.

"It is up to Maliki whether there will be detente," said Abu Ali, a
Mahdi Army member who took part in a large march in Baghdad's Sadr
City neighborhood to protest the situation. He said violence would
soar if Maliki did not call off his troops. "We will be more
determined. Enough humiliation!"

Maliki, meanwhile, has turned to outside help in Basra. U.S. forces
killed three "criminal enemy militia" members during an air strike on
Thursday night, the U.S. military said. It was not immediately clear
if the Navy warplane used in the strike dropped bombs or strafed the
mortar-launching position with cannon fire.

Initially, a British military spokesman, Maj. Tom Holloway, said two
U.S. bombs were dropped. Holloway said the Iraqis requested air
support and that the targets happened to be in the radar of American
jets flying overhead. Later, he said he was mistaken and that cannon
fire was used. A U.S. statement confirmed the American action but not
the type of weapon fired.

Holloway said U.S. and British jets have been flying over the city 24
hours a day since Tuesday.

--Tina Susman in Baghdad
.

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