US now arms Sunnis in Iraq

NY Times:

With the four-month-old increase in American troops showing only modest success in curbing insurgent attacks, American commanders are turning to another strategy that they acknowledge is fraught with risk: arming Sunni Arab groups that have promised to fight militants linked with Al Qaeda who have been their allies in the past.

American commanders say they have successfully tested the strategy in Anbar Province west of Baghdad and have held talks with Sunni groups in at least four areas of central and north-central Iraq where the insurgency has been strong. In some cases, the American commanders say, the Sunni groups are suspected of involvement in past attacks on American troops or of having links to such groups. Some of these groups, they say, have been provided, usually through Iraqi military units allied with the Americans, with arms, ammunition, cash, fuel and supplies.

So the plan that Seymour Hersh has been describing for several months has now made its way to Iraq.

The circle is pretty much complete: the US has gone from boosting Shiite groups, to yelling about Iran boosting Shiite groups, to yelling about Iran nonsensically boosting Sunni groups, to now boosting Sunni groups ourselves. Right. Lots of coherence here. I'm sure it'll turn out peachy.