this sounds like a disaster

the supposed former allies of al qaeda know how desperate the US military is for progress in iraq. this is going to backfire in a much shorter time than our arming of afghani militants did after the soviet-afghan war.

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.

nytimes article

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