U.S. worries about losing 'Sons of Iraq' expertise

[unhappycamper]

Rahim Muhammed Mahmoud, far right, a Diyala province "Sons of Iraq" leader, leads Capt. Timothy Walton, far left, to the site of a rocket attack outside the town of Nahr al Imam. The Iraqi security forces have been slow to give jobs to group members in Diyala.


U.S. worries about losing 'Sons of Iraq' expertise
By Heath Druzin, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, February 11, 2009

NAHR AL IMAM, Iraq — After stumbling across a few hundred yards of dirt clods outside this Diyala province village, Rahim Muhammad Mahmoud points a group of U.S. soldiers to a crater in a drought-hardened farm field.

After some digging, U.S. Army Capt. Timothy Walton nods approvingly as Mahmoud, the area’s "Sons of Iraq" leader, hands him several jagged, twisted bits of metal — proof of a reported rocket strike the soldiers were investigating.

It’s this type of intelligence U.S. soldiers fear losing if rising friction between members of the Iraqi army and the "Sons of Iraq," a security group largely made up of former militants who turned against the insurgency, is not addressed.

A U.S. Special Forces soldier working with Walton said getting information from Iraqis who know the insurgency from the inside is invaluable.

"A good guy isn’t going to know anything — a bad guy is going to know everything," the soldier said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60621

[midnight]

1. A good guy just wants to be a good guy, and not a war criminal.