AQI Paying Off Allies to Return to the Fold

If anything derails our efforts in Iraq, it'll be fiscal mismanagement. Having been bought off by the US once, the Sunni tribes of Anbar are now taking money from Al Qaeda to fight the government, who is behind on salaries and payments to the tribes out there.

Al-Qaida in Iraq has begun offering cash to lure back former Sunni allies angry over the government's failure to give them jobs and pay their salaries on time, according to Sunni tribesmen and Iraqi officials.

The recruitment drive adds to worries that the terror network is attempting a comeback after the deaths of its two top leaders in April and is taking advantage of a summer of uncertainty. The political stalemate in Baghdad is entering its sixth month after inconclusive elections, just as the U.S. military is rapidly drawing down its forces.

Al-Qaida's strategy is to provoke the Shiite majority into launching revenge attacks - a development that could re-ignite open warfare, split the Iraqi security forces along sectarian lines and cement al-Qaida's leadership role among Sunnis.

But if the extremists are unable to win back their former Sunni allies, it would be difficult for them to rebound as a significant threat - though al-Qaida could continue to be a deadly nuisance for years to come.

Al-Qaida's overtures in recent weeks are notable because its militants have killed hundreds of former allies over the past two years, setting off blood vendettas between the Sunni extremist group and others in the Iraqi Sunni community. Many former insurgents also disliked al-Qaida's imposition of a strict interpretation of Islam in areas under its control.

By: Brant