Iraqi Sunnis Cry "Uncle"

Finally, after their disastrous and couterproductive showing at the polls in the Iraqi elections, many Sunni clerics in Iraq have banded together to call on their followers to join the ranks of the Iraqi police and army. Apparently, a consensus is forming that perhaps it is a good idea to be on the same side as the rest of Iraq, rather than risk a civil war... especially a civil war where you are the side without a trained, modern army.

A group of Sunni Arab clerics, including some hard-line figures who fiercely oppose the American presence here, issued a statement on Friday urging their fellow Sunni Arabs to join the Iraqi Army and police. The edict, signed by 64 imams and religious scholars, was a striking turnaround for the clerics, who have often lashed out in sermons at the fledgling army and police force and branded them collaborators...Many if not most insurgent attacks in recent months have been aimed at the police and army, which are largely composed of Shiites. The cleric who announced the edict, Sheik Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai, said he hoped and believed that the new directive would undercut those attacks. But Sheik Abdul Ghafour also made clear that the order was aimed at regaining some control over Iraq's new security forces, not saving Shiite lives. Sunni Arabs dominated the higher echelons of the military under Saddam Hussein, and many, enraged by the American decision to dissolve Mr. Hussein's army two years ago, joined the insurgency.
"The new army and police force are empty of good people, and we need to supply them," the edict said. "Because the police and army are a safeguard for the whole nation, not a militia for any special party, we have issued this fatwa calling on our people to join the army and police."

The signs are not all positive, but it is hard to fight alongside a man as his brother in uniform one day, and then turn and fight against him the next day. This kind of engagement may well pave the way for an eventual Iraqi detente and allow for the American presence to wane, as an Iraqi solidarity movement waxes.