Sons of Iraq becoming Sons of Iraq's Government

There are positive political signs coming in Iraq as the government shows a willingness to absorb the Sons of Iraq.

Iraq's Shiite-led government will assume responsibility for paying 54,000 mainly Sunni militiamen in Baghdad starting next week, in an important test of its commitment to reconciliation, a top general said Monday.

The Christian Science Monitor paints a slightly bleaker picture, though.

While the group called the Sons of Iraq (SOI) has been critically important in improving security, the US military and many leaders within the SOI worry that their foot soldiers – many of them ex-insurgents – will simply return to their old ways if they are not paid or brought into Iraq's official security forces.
'If the government doesn't accept them, most will join [insurgent] groups, and they will restart their activities stronger than before,' says Khalid Jamal, an SOI leader in Baghdad. 'That will make Iraq return to zero.'

Middle East Online, though, has some positive quotes coming out of the Sons of Iraq themselves.

Gun-toting Sunni Arabs battling Al-Qaeda cautiously embraced Iraq's Shiite-led government on Wednesday as the US military transferred the responsibility of paying them to Baghdad without major hiccoughs.
On Wednesday, Omar Samir, 36, a leader of one such group known as Sahwas in Arabic, said the 63 members under his command in Baghdad's Sunni district of Adhamiyah were happy to be paid by Baghdad.
'We're really happy; we feel that from today we'll be representing Iraqi law 100 percent. From now on we'll receive our orders from the Iraqi government,' Samir said.

Good thing they're joining the fight, too, since the Polish military is pulling out of Iraq now.

By: Brant