I know sometimes it’s a bit difficult to keep all the varying sects, septs, tribes, political parties and pressure groups in Iraq separated in your mind. Hint: it’s an alien culture. Americans who have grown up in a more homogenized two-party system where religion and ethnic background don’t automatically lead to gunfire in the streets find a shattered Iraq confusing.

If you’ve been reading internet blogs you are aware of what the Anbar Awakening is all about. These are Sunni religious sect groups and tribes, including ex-Iraqi Army officers and senior NCOs, and some Ba’ath Party officials, who molded the insurgency into a slightly more coherent resistance after the American conquest of Iraq.

After years of these folks killing Americans and their own Shiite opponents they were persuaded to take massive bribes of cash and weapons from the US to stop fighting us and take on the mythical al Qaeda in Iraq (or Mesopotamia) Saudi fighters who came to Iraq to continue the warfare against the US begun on 9/11.

Just in case you thought the Bu$h malAdministration was stepping back from guiding the Iraq process, consider these two news items:

U.S. hails Iraq bid to unite security - Move aids chance for reconciliation

BAGHDAD — Iraq's Shiite-dominated government has agreed to take over support of a U.S.-funded plan that has organized thousands of Iraqis — including former insurgents and their sympathizers — into local security groups.

The move is a long-awaited step toward national reconciliation, said Saad al-Muttalibi, an official at Iraq's Ministry of National Dialogue and Reconciliation.

"It's now reassuring that the government of Iraq recognizes that this is a program that has worked in Anbar and is beginning to work elsewhere in the country," said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a U.S. military spokesman.

Iraq intends to move the guards into training programs as quickly as possible, Muttalibi said. "It's not a good idea to have people with guns running around the streets," he said.

The movement toward local security began in predominantly Sunni Anbar province, where tribal leaders and their followers agreed to work with U.S. and Iraqi forces in fighting al-Qaeda. The program expanded rapidly elsewhere, including Baghdad.

This truce with MNF-I allows them to rebuild, re-arm, and strengthen their militias in relative safety. It was pretty easy for them to identify the Saudi interlopers and to kill them, or chase them off.

At first, Iraq's government eyed the groups warily and considered them a potential threat.

The new concept poses risks. Iraq's Interior and Defense ministries have often had difficulty paying soldiers and police consistently and providing logistical support for their forces. Government officials remain suspicious of the groups, and an effort to disband them quickly could anger Sunni leaders.

Sadiq al-Rikabi, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said Iraq's government needs to integrate the groups into the nation's security forces carefully because al-Qaeda may have infiltrated their ranks.

The U.S. government has been urging Iraq's central government to take steps toward reconciliation. The Iraqi government has yet to pass major legislation, such as an oil-revenue-distribution law, designed to ease tensions between Sunnis and Shiites. [emph added]

A win-win for both the Bu$h malAdministration and the US, right? Not so much. Don’t ever think the Bu$hies and the American people have the same goals.

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's Shiite-led government declared Saturday that after restive areas are calmed it will disband Sunni groups battling Islamic extremists because it does not want them to become a separate military force. … The statement from Defense Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obaidi was the government's most explicit declaration yet of its intent to eventually dismantle the groups backed and funded by the United States as a vital tool for reducing violence.

The militias, more than 70,000 strong and often made up of former insurgents, are known as Awakening Councils, or Concerned Local Citizens.

“We completely, absolutely reject the Awakening becoming a third military organization,'' al-Obaidi said at a news conference.

He added that the groups would also not be allowed to have any infrastructure, such as a headquarters building, that would give them long-term legitimacy.

“We absolutely reject that,'' al-Obaidi said.

The central government is planning to remain in power, indefinitely, just like our republican Party. Rather than find a middle path to reconciliation, the Shiite central government seems determined to create their own national version of a shadow government just like Hezbollah in Iraq. Disbanding the Anbar militias will have just about the same effect that disbanding the Iraqi Army had.

A tip of the too-small Kevlar helmet to Cernig and Ranger for the news leads.