Best Defense

Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

What is going on just west of Baghdad?

There was another attack Monday on a Sunni "Awakening" leader just west of Baghdad. This heavily Sunni area strikes me as the emerging battleground between the Shiite-dominated central government and the Anbar tribes. The Tuesday edition of the New York Times is flashing a warning light: These are among the signs that the fighters’ patience ...

There was another attack Monday on a Sunni "Awakening" leader just west of Baghdad. This heavily Sunni area strikes me as the emerging battleground between the Shiite-dominated central government and the Anbar tribes.

There was another attack Monday on a Sunni "Awakening" leader just west of Baghdad. This heavily Sunni area strikes me as the emerging battleground between the Shiite-dominated central government and the Anbar tribes.

The Tuesday edition of the New York Times is flashing a warning light:

These are among the signs that the fighters’ patience is fraying badly at a difficult moment. After months of promises, only 5,000 Awakening members — just over 5 percent — have been given permanent jobs in the Iraqi security forces."

But I am not hitting the panic button — yet. I’ll wait until my old Washington Post colleague Anthony Shadid, AKA Mr. Cool-as-a-Kurdish-Cucumber, starts to fret.  

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1
Tag: Iraq

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