A surge of their own: Iraqis take back the streets

Source: The Guardian UK

snip...

"I help to keep the peace so that I can row in peace, and that is my passion," said Muhammad, who asked that neither his real name nor that of his rowing club be used. "Now when I go out on the river, you can hear the birds and the hum of the generators. When I began it was only gunfire and bombs."

Muhammad is one of the thousands of young Baghdadi men to have joined neighbourhood security groups, which have mushroomed over the last year and are a crucial factor in the dramatic decline in civilian deaths. US soldiers call them "concerned local citizens"; Iraqis just call them sahwa (awakening) after the so-called Anbar awakening in western Iraq, which has seen Sunni tribal sheikhs take on foreign-led Islamists.

There are now an estimated 72,000 members in some 300 groups set up in 12 of Iraq's 18 provinces, and the numbers are growing. They are funded, but supposedly not armed, by the US military. "It is Iraq's own surge," said a western diplomat, "and it is certainly making a difference."

snip...

Though life in Baghdad is still far from normal, and the security situation still perilous, the capital's remarkably resilient population has begun to believe that the momentum for peace may be sustainable if it is left up to ordinary citizens. "They are filling a void left by Iraq's feuding and self-serving political elite, most of whom are hunkered down and out of touch in the Green Zone," said the western diplomat.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2230041,00.html

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Sunni and Shia working together to take back their country. I call this good news!

There's no indication how many of them are being paid now; they begin as volunteers. The article says eventually they'll be rolled into the security forces, presumably paid. But that seems a distant hope at this point considering how ineffective their gov't is.

Still, it gives me hope to see the young people shunning conservative religious divisiveness and actively working together to reclaim their country for themselves.

Unless it can be assured they are majority shiite.

Sunni's are not welcome.

Although many here have spoken out about the funding of these neighborhood block watch militias, it is better then the funding of outside mercenary groups. imo, they are the only ones fit to keep the peace on the street level.