from SLATE's news summary:>USA Today leads with word that the U.S. military is "exploring creative ways" to reward tribes in Iraq who decide to join the fight against insurgents. Besides the always-reliable cash payments, the U.S. military is also offering medical assistance and making it easier for those who help out to get security contracts. Meanwhile, the U.S. military wants the Iraqi government to work around requirements so that these tribe members can join Iraq's security forces as quickly as possible.<
of course, this is exactly the way that Saddam Hussein went. In his last years in power, he moved away from relying so much on the Ba'ath party and toward coopting tribes (and away from secularism...) After all these years of cooptation, it's hard to believe that the "tribes" we see in Iraq today are anything more than kinship-based gangs or political machines, while it's hard to believe that the youth have much faith in them. On the other hand, Iraq's move into Hobbesian anarchy encourages people to follow such organizations. -- Jim Devine / "The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side." -- James Baldwin
