An Iraqi policeman with a Sunni Awakening movement fighter patrolon the street of Samarra. Yuri Kozyrev / Noor for Time
From Reuters:
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - From a money-counting table stacked with cash to a staircase out in the hallway, a long line of U.S.-backed Iraqi fighters wait patiently for their dues.
It's pay week for the patrolmen who helped flush al Qaeda militants out of their Baghdad neighborhoods. Only this time, it is the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government that is paying the mainly Sunni fighters, rather than the U.S. military.
Putting the fighters, many of whom were once insurgents, on the payroll of a government they once fought is seen as a major test of reconciliation as U.S. troops prepare to withdraw.
The Iraqi army began paying them at dozens of stations opened this week throughout Baghdad.
The U.S. military says the fighters number 100,000, about half of them in Baghdad province. The government took charge of the Baghdad fighters last month and plans to take on those in other parts of the country in coming months.
They had been receiving $300 a month from the U.S. military and the government pay stations are now handing out the equivalent in Iraqi dinars. Some 19,000 fighters are expected to be paid this way by Nov 17, the first round.
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My Comment: The first move is always the hardest. If tolerance continues between all sides, and the promises that have been made are kept .... there is a small chance that maybe .... just maybe .... the peace that is trying to exist in Iraq becomes permanent.